Spirit Bound: Entwined
by MeantForSomethingMore
Summary: A continuation of the First Real Chapter of spirit bound put up by imaVAMPIRE. Now including the first real chapter from Richelle Mead... I hope you enjoy...
1. Chapter 1

Okay… Still thankyou to imaVAMPIRE for writing out this chapter in the first place. Richelle Mead has now released the first chapter on her website…

This it it. I copied and pasted it. So this is the real chapter. Full copyright to Richelle Mead

Chapter One

There's a big difference between death threats and love letters–even if the person writing the death threats still claims to actually love you. Of course, considering I once tried to kill someone I loved, maybe I had no right to judge.

Today's letter had been perfectly timed, not that I should have expected any less. I'd read it four times so far, and even though I was running late, I couldn't help but read it a fifth time.

_My dearest Rose, _

_One of the few downsides to being awakened is that we no longer require sleep; therefore we also no longer dream. It's a shame, because if I could dream, I know I'd dream about you. I'd dream about the way you smell and how your dark hair feels like silk between my fingers. I'd dream about the smoothness of your skin and the fierceness of your lips when we kiss. _

_Without dreams, I have to be content with my own imagination– which is almost as good. I can picture all of those things perfectly, as well as how it'll be when I take your life from this world. _

_It's something I regret having to do, but you've made my choice inevitable. Your refusal to join me in eternal life and love leaves no other course of action, and I can't allow someone as dangerous as you to live. Besides, even if I forced your awakening, you now have so many enemies among the Strigoi that one of them would kill you. If you must die, it'll be by my hand. No one else's. _

_Nonetheless, I wish you well today as you take your trials–not that you need any luck. If they're actually making you take them, it's a waste of everyone's time. You're the best in that group, and by this evening you'll wear your promise mark. Of course, that means you'll be all that much more of a challenge when we meet again–which I'll definitely enjoy. _

_And we will be meeting again. With graduation, you'll be turned out of the Academy, and once you're outside the wards, I'll find you. There is no place in this world you can hide from me. I'm watching. _

_Love,  
Dimitri _

Despite his "warm wishes" I didn't really find the letter inspiring as I tossed it onto my bed and blearily left the room. I tried not to let his words get to me, though it was kind of impossible to not be creeped out by something like that. There is no place in this world you can hide from me.

I didn't doubt it. I knew Dimitri had spies. Since my former instructor-turned-lover had been turned into an evil, undead vampire, he'd also become a sort of leader among them– something I'd helped speed along when I killed off his former boss. I suspected a lot of his spies were humans, watching for me to step outside my school's borders. No Strigoi could have stayed on a twenty-four-hour stakeout. Humans could, and I'd recently learned that plenty of humans were willing to serve the Strigoi in exchange for the promise of being turned someday. Those humans considered eternal life worth corrupting their souls and killing off others to survive. Those humans made me sick.

But the humans weren't what made my steps falter as I walked through grass that had turned bright green with summer's touch. It was Dimitri. Always Dimitri. Dimitri, the man I'd loved. Dimitri, the Strigoi I wanted to save. Dimitri, the monster I'd most likely have to kill. The love we'd shared always burned within me, no matter how often I told myself to move on, no matter how much the world did think I'd moved on. He was always with me, always on my mind, always making me question myself.

"You look like you're ready to face an army."

I shifted out of my dark thoughts. I'd been so fixated on Dimitri and his letter that I'd been walking across campus, oblivious to the world, and hadn't noticed my best friend, Lissa, falling into step with me, a teasing smile on her face. Her catching me by surprise was a rarity because we shared a psychic bond, one that always kept me aware of her presence and feelings. I had to be pretty distracted to not notice her, and if ever there was a distraction, it was someone wanting to kill me.

I gave Lissa what I hoped was a convincing smile. She knew what had happened to Dimitri and how he was now waiting to kill me after I'd tried–and failed–to kill him. Nonetheless, the letters I got from him every week worried her, and she had enough to deal with in her life without my undead stalker to add to the list.

"I kind of am facing an army," I pointed out. It was early evening, but late summer still found the sun up in the Montana sky, bathing us in golden light as we walked. I loved it, but as a Moroi–a peaceful, living vampire–Lissa would eventually grow weak and uncomfortable in it.

She laughed and tossed her platinum hair over one shoulder. The sun lit up the pale color into angelic brilliance. "I suppose. I didn't think you'd really be all that worried."

I could understand her reasoning. Even Dimitri had said these would be a waste of my time. After all, I'd gone to Russia to search for him and had faced real Strigoi–killing a number of them on my own. Maybe I shouldn't have been afraid of the upcoming tests, but all the fanfare and expectation suddenly pressed in upon me. My heart rate increased. What if I couldn't do it? What if I wasn't as good as I thought I was? The guardians who would challenge me out here might not be true Strigoi, but they were skilled and had been fighting a lot longer than me. Arrogance could get me into a lot of trouble, and if I failed, I'd be doing it in front of all the people who cared about me. All the people who had such faith in me.

One other thing also concerned me.

"I'm worried about how these grades will affect my future," I said. That was the truth. The trials were the final exam for a novice guardian like me. They ensured I could graduate from St. Vladimir's Academy and take my place with true guardians who defended Moroi from the Strigoi. The trials pretty much decided which Moroi a guardian would be assigned to.

Through our bond, I felt Lissa's compassion–and her worry. "Alberta thinks there's a good chance we can stay together–that you'll still be my guardian."

I grimaced. "I think Alberta was saying that to keep me in school." I'd dropped out to hunt Dimitri a few months ago and then returned–something that didn't look good on my academic record. There was also the small fact that the Moroi queen, Tatiana, hated me and would probably be going out of her way to influence my assignment–but that was another story. "I think Alberta knows the only way they'd let me protect you is if I was the last guardian on earth. And even then, my odds would still be pretty slim."

Ahead of us, the roar of a crowd grew loud. One of the school's many sports fields had been transformed into an arena on par with something from Roman gladiatorial days. The bleachers had been built up, expanded from simple wooden seats to luxuriously cushioned benches with awnings to shade the Moroi from the sun. Banners surrounded the field, their bright colors visible from here as they whipped in the wind. I couldn't see them yet, but I knew there would be some type of barracks built near the stadium's entrance where novices waited, nerves on edge. The field itself would have turned into an obstacle course of dangerous tests. And from the sound of those deafening cheers, plenty were already there to witness this event.

"I'm not giving up hope," Lissa said. Through the bond, I knew she meant it. It was one of the wonderful things about her–a steadfast faith and optimism that weathered the most terrible ordeals. It was a sharp contrast to my recent cynicism.

"And I've got something that might help you out today."

She came to a stop and reached into her jeans pocket, producing a small silver ring scattered with tiny stones that looked like peridots. I didn't need any bond to understand what she was offering.

"Oh, Liss...I don't know. I don't want any, um, unfair advantage."

Lissa rolled her eyes. "That's not the problem, and you know it. This one's fine, I swear."

The ring she offered me was a charm, infused with the rare type of magic she wielded. All Moroi had control of one of five elements: earth, air, water, fire, or spirit. Spirit was the rarest– so rare, it had been forgotten over the centuries. Then Lissa and a few others had recently surfaced with it. Unlike the other elements, which were more physical in nature, spirit was tied into the mind and all sorts of psychic phenomena. No one fully understood it.

Making charms with spirit was something Lissa had only recently begun to experiment with–and she wasn't very good at it. Her best spirit ability was healing, so she kept trying to make healing charms. The last one had been a bracelet that singed my arm.

"This one works. Only a little, but it'll help keep the darkness away during the trial."

She spoke lightly, but we both knew the seriousness of her words. With all of spirit's gifts came a cost: a darkness that showed itself now as anger and confusion, and eventually led to insanity. Darkness that sometimes bled over into me through our bond. Lissa and I had been told that with charms and her healing, we could fight it off. That was also something we had yet to master.

I gave her a faint smile, moved by her concern, and accepted the ring. It didn't scald my hand, which I took as a promising sign. It was tiny and only fit on my pinky. I felt nothing whatsoever as it slid on. Sometimes that happened with healing charms. Or it could mean the ring was completely ineffectual. Either way, no harm done.

"Thanks," I said. I felt delight sweep through her, and we continued walking.

I held my hand out before me, admiring the way the green stones glittered. Jewelry wasn't a great idea in the kind of physical ordeals I'd be facing, but I would have gloves on to cover it.

"Hard to believe that after this, we'll be done here and out in the real world," I mused aloud, not really considering my words.

Beside me, Lissa stiffened, and I immediately regretted speaking. "Being out in the real world" meant Lissa and I were going to undertake a task she'd–unhappily–promised to help me with a couple months ago.

While in Siberia, I'd learned there might be a way to restore Dimitri back to being a dhampir like me. It was a long shot– possibly a lie–and considering the way he was fixated on killing me, I had no illusions that I would have any other choice but to kill him if it came down to him or me. But if there was a way I might save him before that happened, I had to find out.

Unfortunately, the only lead we had to making this miracle come true was through a criminal. Not just any criminal either: Victor Dashkov, a royal Moroi who had tortured Lissa and committed all sorts of other atrocities that had made our lives hell. Justice had been served, and Victor was locked away in prison, which complicated things. We'd learned that so long as he was destined for a life behind bars, he saw no reason to share what he knew about his half-brother–the only person who had once allegedly saved a Strigoi. I'd decided– possibly illogically–that Victor might give up the information if we offered him the one thing no one else could: freedom.

This idea was not foolproof, for a number of reasons. First, I didn't know if it would work. That was kind of a big thing. Second, I had no idea how to stage a prison break, let alone where his prison even was. And finally, there was the fact that we would be releasing our mortal enemy. That was devastating enough to me, let alone Lissa. Yet as much as the idea troubled her–and believe me, it did–she'd firmly sworn she would help me. I'd offered to free her from the promise dozens of times in the last couple months, but she'd stood firm. Of course, considering we had no way to even find the prison, her promise might not matter in the end.

I tried to fill the awkward silence between us, explaining instead that I'd really meant we'd be able to celebrate her birthday in style next week. My attempts were interrupted by Stan, one of my longtime instructors. "Hathaway!" he barked, coming from the direction of the field. "Nice of you to join us. Get in there now!"

Thoughts of Victor vanished from Lissa's mind. Lissa gave me a quick hug. "Good luck," she whispered. "Not that you need it."

Stan's expression told me that this ten-second goodbye was ten seconds too long. I gave Lissa a grin by way of thanks, and then she headed off to find our friends in the stands while I scurried after Stan.

"You're lucky you aren't one of the first ones," he growled. "People were even making bets about whether you'd show."

"Really?" I asked cheerfully. "What kind of odds are there on that? Because I can still change my mind and put down my own bet. Make a little pocket money."

His narrowed eyes shot me a warning that needed no words as we entered the waiting area adjacent to the field, across from the stands. It had always amazed me in past years how much work went into these trials, and I was no less impressed now as I saw it up close. The barrack that novices waited in was constructed out of wood, complete with a roof. The structure looked as though it had been part of the stadium forever. It had been built with remarkable speed and would be taken down equally quickly once the trials were over. A doorway about three people wide gave a partial glimpse onto the field, where one of my classmates was waiting anxiously for her name to be called. All sorts of obstacles were set up there, challenges to test balance and coordination while still having to battle and elude the adult guardians who would be lurking around objects and corners. Wooden walls had been constructed on one end of the field, creating a dark and confusing maze. Nets and shaky platforms hung across other areas, designed to test just how well we could fight under difficult conditions.

A few of the other novices crowded the doorway, hoping to get an advantage by watching those who went ahead of them. Not me. I would go in there blind, content to take on whatever they threw before me. Studying the course now would simply make me overthink and panic. Calm was what I needed now.

So I leaned against one of the barrack walls and watched those around me. It appeared that I really had been the last to show up, and I wondered if people had actually lost money betting on me. Some of my classmates whispered in clusters. Some were doing stretches and warm-up exercises. Others stood with instructors who had been mentors. Those teachers spoke intently to their students, giving last-minute words of advice. I kept hearing words like _focus and calm down_.

Seeing the instructors made my heart clench. Not so long ago, that was how I'd pictured this day. I'd imagined Dimitri and me standing together, with him telling me to take this seriously and not to lose my cool when I was out on the field. Alberta had done a fair amount of mentoring for me since I'd returned from Russia, but as captain, she was out on the field herself now, busy with all sorts of responsibilities. She had no time to come in here and hold my hand. Friends of mine who might have offered comfort–Eddie, Meredith, and others– were wrapped up in their own fears. I was alone.

Without her or Dimitri–or, well, anyone–I felt a surprising ache of loneliness flow through me. This wasn't right. I shouldn't have been alone. Dimitri should have been here with me. That's how it was supposed to have been. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to pretend he was really there, only inches away as we spoke.

"Don't worry, comrade. I can do this blindfolded. Hell, maybe I actually will. Do you have anything I can use? If you're nice to me, I'll even let you tie it on." Since this fantasy would have taken place after we'd slept together, there was a strong possibility that he would have later helped me take off that blindfold–among other things.

I could perfectly picture the exasperated shake of his head that would earn me. "Rose, I swear, sometimes it feels like every day with you is my own personal trial."

But I knew he'd smile anyway, and the look of pride and encouragement he'd give me as I headed toward the field would be all I needed to get through the tests–

"Are you meditating?"

I opened my eyes, astonished at the voice. "Mom? What are you doing here?"

My mother, Janine Hathaway, stood in front of me. She was just a few inches shorter than me but had enough fight in her for someone twice my size. The dangerous look on her tanned face dared anyone to bring on a challenge. She gave me a wry smile and put one hand on her hip.

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't come to watch you?"

"I don't know," I admitted, feeling kind of guilty for doubting her. She and I hadn't had much contact over the years, and it was only recent events–most of them bad–that had begun to reestablish our connection. Most of the time, I still didn't know how to feel about her. I oscillated between a little girl's need for her absent mother and a teenager's resentment over abandonment. I also wasn't entirely sure if I'd forgiven her for the time she "accidentally" punched me in a mock fight. "I figured you'd have, you know, more important things to do."

"There's no way I could miss this." She inclined her head toward the stands, making her auburn curls sway. "Neither could your father."

"What?"

I hurried toward the doorway and peered out onto the fields. My view of the stands wasn't fantastic, thanks to all the obstacles on the field, but it was good enough. There he was: Abe Mazur. He was easy to spot, with his black beard and mustache, as well as the emerald green scarf knotted over his dress shirt. I could even barely make out the glint of his gold earring. He had to be melting in this heat, but I figured it would take more than a little sweat for him to tame down his flashy fashion sense.

If my relationship with my mother was sketchy, my relationship with my father was practically nonexistent. I'd met him back in May, and even then, it wasn't until after I'd gotten back that I found out I was his daughter. All dhampirs had one Moroi parent, and he was mine. I still wasn't sure how I felt about him. Most of his background remained a mystery, but there were plenty of rumors that he was involved with illegal business. People also acted like he was the kneecap-breaking type, and though I'd seen little evidence of this, I didn't find it surprising. In Russia, they called him Zmey: the serpent.

While I stared at him in astonishment, my mom strolled over to my side. "He'll be happy you made it in time," she said. "He's running some big wager on whether you'd show. He put his money on you, if that makes you feel any better."

I groaned. "Of course. Of course he'd be the bookie behind the pool. I should have known as soon as–" My jaw dropped. "Is he talking to Adrian?"

Yup. Sitting beside Abe was Adrian Ivashkov–my more-orless boyfriend. Adrian was a royal Moroi–and another spirit user like Lissa. He'd been crazy about me (and often just crazy) ever since we first met, but I'd had eyes only for Dimitri. After the failure in Russia, I'd returned and promised to give Adrian a shot. To my surprise, things had been...good between us. Great, even. He'd written me up a proposal of why dating him was a sound decision. It had included things like "I'll give up cigarettes unless I really, really need one" and "I'll unleash romantic surprises every week, such as: an impromptu picnic, roses, or a trip to Paris–but not actually any of those things because now they're not surprises."

Being with him wasn't like it had been with Dimitri, but then, I supposed, no two relationships could ever be exactly alike. They were different men, after all. I still woke up all the time, aching over the loss of Dimitri and our love. I tormented myself over my failure to kill him in Siberia and free him from his undead state. Still, that despair didn't mean my romantic life was over–something it had taken me a while to accept. Moving on was hard, but Adrian did make me happy. And for now, that was enough.

But that didn't necessarily mean I wanted him cozying up to my pirate mobster father either.

"He's a bad influence!" I protested.

My mother snorted. "I doubt Adrian will influence Abe that much."

"Not Adrian! Abe. Adrian's trying to be on good behavior. Abe will mess everything up." Along with smoking, Adrian had sworn he'd quit drinking and other vices in his dating proposal. I squinted at him and Abe across the crowded stands, trying to figure out what topic could be so interesting. "What are they talking about?"

"I think that's the least of your problems right now." Janine Hathaway was nothing if not practical. "Worry less about them and more about that field."

"Do you think they're talking about me?"

"Rose!" My mother gave me a light punch on the arm, and I dragged my eyes back to her. "You have to take this seriously. Keep calm, and don't get distracted."

Her words were so like what I'd imagined Dimitri saying that a small smile crept onto my face. I wasn't alone out here after all.

"What's so funny?" she asked warily.

"Nothing," I said, giving her a hug. She was stiff at first and then relaxed, actually hugging me back briefly before stepping away. "I'm glad you're here."

My mother wasn't the overly affectionate type, and I'd caught her off guard. "Well," she said, obviously flustered, "I told you I wouldn't miss this."

I glanced back at the stands. "Abe, on the other hand, I'm not so sure of."

Or...wait. An odd idea came to me. No, not so odd, actually. Shady or not, Abe had connections–ones extensive enough to slip a message to Victor Dashkov in prison. Abe had been the one to ask for info about Robert Doru, Victor's spiritwielding brother, as a favor to me. When Victor had sent back the message saying he had no reason to help Abe with what he needed, I'd promptly written off my father's assistance and jumped to my prison-break idea. But now–

"Rosemarie Hathaway!"

It was Alberta who called me, her voice ringing loud and clear. It was like a trumpet, a call to battle. All thoughts of Abe and Adrian–and yes, even Dimitri–vanished from my mind. I think my mother wished me good luck, but the exact wording was lost on me as I strode toward Alberta and the field. Adrenaline surged through me. All my attention was now on what lay ahead: the test that would finally make me a guardian.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everybody, This is my first attempt at fan fiction. I hope you enjoy it. I am having fun writing it. **** The first few chapters aren't all that long, and a little boringish… but It'll get better.**

CHAPTER TWO

As I reached albertas side she gave me a hug and said " I know you'll pass with flying colours, but good luck. You have had the rules explained to you?" I nodded. We had been called in for a novices meeting and they had gone over all the details, well, all the details we were allowed to know anyway. "Well what are we waiting for then" She grinned at me and pulled out what looked like an old timey black gun of some kind-- hey I don't use guns-- and pointed it towards the sky.

"Ready, Set…" And then she shot what I'm guessing--and hoping--was a blank straight up into the big blue nothingness above our heads.

I took off as fast as I could safely go. As well as taking down the 'strigoi' we were graded on how fast we made it through, if we 'died' and in what condition we made it out of the other end. The whole thing reminded me of those movie army drills, all that was missing was the pouring rain and the fat kid who couldn't quite make it over a big wall.

I ran straight over a balance beam set over muddy water, I'm guessing someone had already fallen in, and jumped back onto dry ground. I ran around a huge bale of hay and saw the quick flash of black out of the corner of my eye. Acting on reflexes I turned, ducked, punched them in the stomach and 'staked' them. One down, god knows how many more to go.

I kept going and found 2 more, I was pretty sure I was nearly at the end and I was starting to worry because I hadn't taken on all the teachers yet, I knew there was heaps more, I was heading down a rope ladder when I saw a flash of black once again up ahead, to my right was a huge wooden wall and once again, acting on instinct I jumped onto the rope guide and flung myself onto the wall – hey noone said I couldn't—and carefully made my way to where the wall turned forming a corner. Standing behind this corner, lying in wait for me were 8 guardians, all dressed in black, and… wait… is that… LISSA???

I checked the bond briefly and she seemed calm, and full of confidence in me that I'd beat them and 'save' her. I saw two 'strigoi' guarding her, two waiting for me to come around the corner and four in between, so I chose the 4 in between… They would die first, I jumped, kicking out to my sides at the same time, knocking two opposite each other over. I swiftly staked the one in front, ducked and spun(a move Dimitri taught me) and staked the one behind. The two either side recovered quickly and came at me, fast. Unfortunately for them neither one realized how fast the other was moving so I simply jumped out of the way, they crashed into eachother and I staked both before they hit the floor.

All this happened in a matter of 15 seconds so by the time I turned around, the two waiting for me to come around the corner had realized their mistake and were coming at me. I fought both at the same time, doing a weird sort of fight dance with them, both sides throwing blows, yet neither had the upper hand until I staked one as I spun around and caught them by surprise. The other one looked surprised I got his 'friend' so in that moment I caught him of guard.

Great, I'm down to two. And both are waaaaay too close to Lissa.

I took the first one out that came towards me easily within 30 seconds. And then I was faced with one last one. I hadn't noticed who the other guardians were, I hadn't been paying attention, just thinking of them as the enemy, but I knew this one. With a jolt of surprise I realized that this one was none other then –as I like to think of him—my arch nemesis, Stan. HA this was going to be so much fun. At that very moment he lunged at me, hoping to catch me by surprise no doubt. No such luck Stan. I punched and kicked my way around him and was proud that he didn't even land one blow to me before I triumphantly staked him and did a little glory dance.

I ran to Lissa then and untied her. She grinned at me hugely and gave me a big hug " I KNEW you'd do it!"

"Piece of cake Liss, piece of cake… Little Stan is nothing compared to fighting real strigoi, I think the only one I wouldn't feel one hundred percent confident beating would be…" I trailed off, lost in my memories, I thought I HAD beaten him, but how could I ever be confident again knowing I had failed him… twice.

"Come on you, there's people who want to congratulate you… and for the record, I think you could beat ANYbody" Lissa said giving me a knowing look, I could feel the compassion through the bond, and also that darn sense of complete faith in me.

All of a sudden I was surrounded by people. "I am so proud of my baby girl" said Abe.

"I'm sorry but WHAT did you just call me?" he looked at me sheepishly and grinned

"just trying it on" he shrugged.

I shook my head "Well for the record, DAD" I smiled warmly "I am happy that you came." I gave him a big hug and turned to my left where my mother was standing, her mouth wide open.

"wow that's just… I mean… I just… didn't think that would be something I ever saw, or heard." I can't believe the infamous Janine Hathaway had nothing to say. She shook herself and said "well anyway, I want you to know how proud I am of you, and I want you to know, you were the only one they did the ambush at the end for. And you passed. Very impressive" she gave me a stiff hug which turned into warmer hug as I wouldn't let her go just yet

"I love you" I whispered to my mum and as we broke apart I heard a choking sound coming from her and "I love you too my Rosemarie" as the tears started running down her face, She quickly turned and walked swiftly away, My…dad following close behind. Hmmm, wonder whats going on there…

Then I was surrounded by all the other Novices who had just finished their tasks before me. "wow rose that was amazing"

"omg rose you were awesome, scary but awesome"

"I can't believe you had to take them all on at the end there, that was GREAT"

The voices all blurred into eachother, I just stood there grinning and laughing as I felt the claps on my back while they went on, and on.

I looked to my left and saw Adrian standing, leaning against a tree smiling at me, I excused myself from the crowd of novices and made my way over to him. "that was a cute little victory dance you did out there, wanna do another little one with me?"

"what right here?" I smirked.

"Well I was thinking one somewhere a little more secluded…"

"Adrian…" I sighed.

He cut me off "I know, I know. No sex. Your not ready" He didn't say it in an overbearing arrogant way, more of a caring, not wanting to push me gentle way. It was times like that I really wished I could give myself to him fully. While I enjoy holding his hand, and not being alone every night, and our hot make out sessions… I couldn't bring myself to fully be with him when I knew I'd be trying to save Dimitri, my Dimitri. I still felt guilty though, like I was leading him on. But I'd been honest with him from the beginning. When he finally argued with me over whether he makes me happy, I finally gave in. He does make me happy. I even love him. But I will never love him one quarter of the amount I love Dimitri. Dimitri still has part of my heart, wherever he is.

Just then Lissa ran up and grabbed my arm. "C'mon Rose you're staying at mine tonight"

As she pulled me away I yelled "Sorry lover boy! Another time perhaps" He had a small sad smile on his face, like he knew he didn't really have my heart, and the part that he was borrowing would have to be returned all too soon. This led me into a horribly hopeful train of thought about what was going to happen, with victor, hopefully Robert, and inevitably Dimitri.

All my thoughts lead back to him. I knew I'd be seeing him soon…

Whether I planned it or not.

**Hello Again! **** I hope you enjoyed my first chapter, if you feel like reviewing please go right ahead, It's very much appreciated, but I am writing because I want to, so I will keep the chapters coming either way **** (but still review if you think I'm worthy :P)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, thankyou for the reviews, I know I only uploaded it this morning, but I have the second chapter done, so I thought I'd upload it now… hope you like **

CHAPTER THREE

"So tomorrow first thing we have massage appointments and mani and pedis, then lunch, then we have hair and makeup appointments!... Rose? ROSE! What are you looking so serious about?"

Oh she was talking to me, shit, oh about the graduation of course. "uh I was thinking what am I going to wear" I lied.

"Oh I am ALL over this, I have your graduation dress AND the after party dresses all sorted" she was practically beaming at this point. I decided to try and be as enthusiastic as her. For all I know I MIGHT get assigned to her…

I woke up in the morning to Lissas face less then a foot away from mine… "YOU'RE AWAKE!!" she screamed. I had forbidden her from waking me up last night but that didn't stop her from scaring the heck out of me.

"yea I am NOW, thanks." I grumbled and slowly made my way into the bathroom and locked the door. Ugh, I knew today would be a loooong day. I could hear Lissa outside being all perky. I showered, dressed and put on my facing the day face that I've come to know so well.

Several hours later we were eating at a fancy restaurant owned by a moroi. Because we didn't have time to go all the way to court and our lunchtime is around human midnight this smart moroi man had opened his own place. The food was delicious and I had a really good time. We finished off there and spent hours—I'm not kidding… HOURS! – getting our hair and makeup done. It was kinda nice, but I'm not that big on talking to strangers. Turns out Lissa did the talking for both of us. I felt sorry for the two Guardians that Kirova had sent with us. If I was bored they must have been suicidal.

We finally got back to the academy and made our way up to Lissas room. "you just WAIT till you see the dresses I got for you." I am glad she took the initiative here, cause I haven't really had any time at all, between making up my field experience – yes I had to guard Christian again, no it wasn't so bad—and practices with Alberta. Lissa ran straight to her wardrobe. As I sat on her bed she emerged with two dress bags. She dramatically unzipped the first one " TA DA!!!"

"Oh my god, Liss it's beautiful… and sexy… it's so my kind of dress" It was

"I know" she said smugly. She held it up against me as we both looked in the mirror. It was a backless halterneck, Black with red trimmings around the edges. It came to just above my knee… (cause apparently I had to be SORT of respectable for graduation according to Lissa) and clung to my curves perfectly. It had a sort of ruffled effect going on in the middle and I knew I'd look extremely hot in it.

"Well what are we waiting for lets get you into it" beamed Lissa. Once I had the dress on, I sat back down on the bed and put on my black strappy heels. I wish Dimitri could see me right…. NO! I can't let myself think about him or I'll fall apart.

…He should be here. He should have been here for the challenge, and he should be here now... NO! I was doing it again.

Just at that moment Lissa came out of her walk in wardrobe wearing a powder blue knee length ruffled baby doll dress that lade her look like an angel.

"oh, wow, just wow Liss that looks perfect!"

She did a little twirl and said "why thankyou, but just you wait till you see our after party dresses" I sat there for a second longer before jumping up and pretending to make a run for it into her wardrobe. Lissa simply stood in the doorway and waved her finger at me "oh no, not yet… you have to wait miss impatient"

I laughed and pulled her towards the door "C'mon Liss we don't want to be late now."

As we got to the door, I noticed a note underneath the door with my name on it. I knew who it was from almost immediately. I knew it couldn't be a good sign if he knew I was staying at Lissas tonight. Then I realized perhaps he doesn't know where I am at all. Maybe his spy is the one keeping tabs on me. I mean he has to have one, cause he can't be on school grounds, and the guardians wouldn't just put notes in my room when they didn't know who they were from, would they?

"Rose? What is it? Are you ok?" I looked up into Lissas worried eyes and realized I'd been standing there staring into space. "umm yea Liss, I'm fine." I bent down and picked up the note.

_My Dearest Rose,_

_I knew you wouldn't need any luck with your trials. You are fierce and unstoppable when faced with an enemy threatening one you love. Well, unstoppable for now. We will test you soon enough._

_I still spend my nights imagining your silky hair running through my fingers and your soft skin beneath my hands. I will always imagine you like that, forever. _

_Not long now, I imagine you will wait a few weeks after graduation to leave the grounds, to prepare for your meeting with me perhaps? Either way, I will keep my eye on you. I will even perhaps give you a head start into the world. Maybe you can see a few things before you must forfeit your life. _

_This will be the last note you receive from me. _

_You will see me soon._

_Love,_

_Dimitri_

I fell to the floor, clutching the note. I vaguely felt Lissa trying to pry the note away from my fingers. What felt like a million years later she cleared her throat. I focused my eyes and looked up into her face.

"Rose, tonight is ours, tonight we will celebrate our freedom, we will have a good time, tomorrow night" she took a deep breath, "We leave. He is either underestimating you or giving you a head start. So we will use this to our advantage. Tomorrow we will use to sleep, and to make our plans. Ok? Do you understand Rose?" she looked at me sharply, I wasn't used to her taking control like this. But I found I kind of needed it right now. And she was right. We needed to make a move before it's too late.

"Yes, yes, Liss thankyou" I hugged her. "I know how opposed you are to freeing victor, even though we have no clue how to even go about it, but you are doing this for me, this means the world to me" I nearly started crying at this point.

"let's go, no tears k?" she handed me a tissue. "Lets go graduate!". We both ran from the room laughing at her enthusiasm, she sounded like some weird kind of cheerleader.

As we reached the assembly hall we were stopped by Alberta "Not you two… round the back, Novices and Moroi will go backstage and assemble onstage at the appropriate time." We took off to the left and ran straight into a big crowd of students, and almost wet ourselves laughing once again.

"what's so funny you two?"

"Yea? Something to share?"

As me and liss looked over at Christian and Eddy in their Penguin suits we lost it laughing again and held onto eachother to stop from falling onto the floor. "Secret girl business" I said once I regained my guardian face, which sent us off into a fit of giggles once more.

Just then we heard Albertas booming voice somewhere towards the stairs leading to the stage. "OK LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, LISTEN UP" the whole crowd went quiet. "ok you know the drill, Moroi the the left, Novices, about to become Guardians" she gave a little smile at that part "to the right, and organize yourself in alphabetical order. You have 5 minutes before we go onstage." The moroi seemed to have a little more trouble working out their order then us soon-to-be-guardians did. Guess our organizational skills were trained as guardians as well.

I looked at the moroi weaving in and out of one another and smirked as I saw Christian looking very confused. "Whats wrong Ozera? Forget your name?" I heard the novices around me snicker and gave I him an evil grin.

"ROSE! That's not very nice" said lissa from near the front of the line—SHE had managed to find her place--, but I felt through the bond the smile she was trying to hide.

I just collapsed into a fit of giggles until I heard Christian reply "It's ok Lissa, I know for a fact Roses mum told her who to stand in between before she got here" he turned to me "It's not easy being the only SPECIAL person in your class, it's ok, we understand" he said in a mock gentle tone before turning and standing in his correct position triumphantly. Before I could reply The graduation music started, some classical sounding music with violins and cellos and piano music. Huh, guess they went the whole she-bang for this thing.

We all filed onto the stage and took our seats back to front, so I was somewhere up towards the back, It was kind of awesome though because the chairs were arranged so each row behind was higher then the one in front, so we were right up high looking at everyone. I looked to my left and saw Lissa, her eyes open wide looking at the hundreds of people here watching our graduation. She looked at me and smiled and mouthed the word "wow".

I mouthed "I know" back to her and continued searching the faces in the crowd. There was my mum, and next to her was my dad, well I should've guessed that one. OH ABE, I had to talk to him, maybe he can help with victor. Then I remembered Lissas talk and thought I better leave that for tomorrow, I had all tomorrow to organize a plan. I continued looking around, saw all the teachers, other peoples parents, brothers sisters, ugh there was Tasha and…

Theres Adrian. Adrian was starting right at me, and when I met his eyes he gave me a big lazy grin. I grinned back.

I really did love him in a way, just not the way that he wanted me. My heart and soul still belonged to my undead love. I wish he were here. I got sad then thinking about him not being here, and shook myself before I sunk too far into my thoughts. I looked back at Adrian and he looked uneasy like he knew what I was thinking, but seeing me looking at him again he smiled, and I once again smiled back. He is really good looking. I sighed, why is my life so complicated?

At that moment I realized the music had stopped and Kirova was on stage, she was followed by several other teachers, and finally Alberta who—finally—started reading off the names of the graduating novices. As we reached Alberta she would get us to recite the guardian oath and hand us our very own stake. She would then call upon the moroi we were assigned to protect and as they were awarded their diplomas we were given our promise marks.

I suddenly had a nauseous feeling in my stomach that had nothing to do with strigoi. I didn't even realize I was holding my breath until I heard "Rosemarie Hathaway" Ugh I think I was going to be sick. Great. In front of all these people. I carefully made my way down to Alberta, repeated the pledge after her and received my stake.

As she handed me the stake she gave me a hug and whispered "he would have been so proud of you today" I broke away in shock, does she know? Then I saw the look of surprise on her face and realized she didn't. Our secret was still safe. "sorry I just, still miss him" I smiled sadly and she clapped her hand on my shoulder. She ushered me off to the side to receive my promise mark and turned back to the microphone. This was it. The make or break moment. I wouldn't guard anyone but Lissa. I knew deep inside I'd leave my moroi to protect her if I had to.

Alberta started speaking while I was lost in thought "Rose Hathaway has been through a lot since she returned to the academy. She caught up to, and surpassed most her class. She fought and won many fights in the battle. She lost her mentor. She has been learning about Her bond-mate Vasilisa's new powers through spirit, and also the darkness. And she has somehow managed not to break any, well many.."she smirked and looked in my direction "school rules. So I am pleased to announce, that with only a little persuasion from the council" hmmm, I wonder who she threatened "Rosemarie Hathaway will be Guardian to… Vasilisa Dragomir."

The whole place broke into applause, I heard whistles and cheers. Lissa ran down the aisle tears streaming down her face and a huge grin in place. All I could think was "we did it, I'm her guardian, nothing can tear us apart again" I didn't even realize when she was hugging me, my mark had been completed while I was listening to Albertas speech.

Me and Lissa took a look at eachother, grinned and ran straight up to Alberta almost knocking her off her feet. The whole audience started laughing and I whispered "thankyou so much Alberta, whatever you did, thankyou"

She looked at us and I was surprised to see small tears forming in the corner of her eyes. "After all you went through, and with everything Dimitri taught you, not to mention the bond, It wasn't hard to do." She smiled sadly and whispered "you've already lost one love, I couldn't let you lose your best friend as well" OH MY GOD, SHE KNEW! I KNEW SHE DID! Oh no, whats going to happen now… Well this was no time for that now, I put it our of my mind and we made our way back to our seats. I couldn't stop grinning and neither could Lissa _nothing can stop us now rose, NOTHING! _I kept grinning like a crazy person and nodded at her. I didn't let myself think about the one person who COULD take me away form her.

We had tonight to be happy.

I promised.

**Thankyou for reading and letting me know what you think, I have decided to keep it as true to the stories as I can, so I'll be keeping it all in roses pov. Hope you like **


	4. Chapter 4

**I forgot to mention before I do not own any of the characters for Vampire Academy… Now you may read :P**

CHAPTER FOUR

The ceremony FINALLY ended and we headed up to Lissas room once again. It felt like deja vu as she strutted out of her wardrobe holding another dress bag. She slowly unzipped it while she held it in one hand and danced around it somehow looking as if she was stripping.

I laughed at her as she finally got the zipper to the bottom and did a little shimmy as she pulled the dress out. It was a strapless black mid thigh length tight body hugging dress, made out of what looked like tiny black feathers dangling off it, it was beautiful, it would shimmy and shake with every movement of my body.

"OH MY GOD, LISSA IT'S PERFECT!!" I screamed as I jumped up and ran to grab it off her. I could NOT wait to put it on. It was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen. Surely I'd get kicked out of the after party wearing that. The after party was being put on by St Vladimirs. It was a dance of sorts. With drinks and nibblies provided.

I tore off my graduation dress as fast as I could without harming it and laid it on the top of the bed. I slid into the new dress and gave a sigh of joy. "who knew a dress could make me so happy"

"I did" said Lissa with a smirk. "Now give me one sec and don't forget to change your shoes."

She emerged once again from her closet in a mid thigh length flowing rainbow coloured dress that was a little bit flirty and very sexy. She was wearing strappy silver heels that made her legs look even longer then they were, which was long.

We both undid our hair, which we had curled and pinned up on top of our heads and we both now had very wavy, slightly curly matching hair—well except the colour that is. We added some dark eye shadow to our already made up faces and decided we were ready to go.

We headed out and almost ran into Christian and Eddy who were wearing the same suite form before. They stopped and stared at the both us with stunned looks on their faces "wow you guys… I mean…. Wow, you…"

"yea he's right, I mean.. wow.."

We both lost it laughing again rendering the boys speechless yet AGAIN. This night would be fun.

We walked downstairs escorted by our 'handsome admirers' and reached the gym where the party was set. We walked in and froze.

The whole gym was covered in silver and white material and shiny dangly bits. There were silver and white helium filled balloons, hundreds of them covering the high ceiling and mirror balls and shining lights nagging through that. There was a dj in the corner and the floor was crowded with students.

The Guardians were easy to spot, looking stiff and unmoving standing randomly at intervals around the room. We headed straight for the middle of the room and started dancing, it wasn't long before me and Lissa were dirty dancing with eachother and the other guys were dancing with us.

I knew I wouldn't touch any alcohol but that didn't mean I couldn't have a good time. I am Rose Hathaway. I AM the party.

We danced and danced for what felt like nearly an hour before Lissa dragged me off to get a drink. Christian followed while eddy was still dancing with a group of moroi girls.

We got our drinks and sat on two of the stools next to the 'bar'—where they weren't serving alcohol—and I spun the chair around to face the dance floor. I saw Adrian making his way over to us and smiled at him. He finally reached us and smiled. "Hello little dhampir, having fun?" he asked as he kissed my lips.

I just smiled back sweetly at him. He was so good, so kind, and so good looking. I was starting to feel guilty. I knew I'd have to talk to him soon.

But now not.

Not Yet.

I really cared for him, I'd be lying to myself if I said I didn't, but I was still in love with Dimitri, and was making plans to save him. Tomorrow, tomorrow I would talk to Adrian about it.

I should have known better then to try and hide it. "would you honour me with this dance?" asked Adrian all gentleman like. I could see that he really wanted to have this with me, something in his eyes told me he was sad, and angry, and lonely, and a million other emotions I couldn't put my finger on. Just as we reached the dance floor a slow song came on and he pulled me into his arms.

"I know you are planning something, or you know something, something that will affect us." I tried to cut him off but he spoke again "I know you warned me all along that you love him still. And you love me, but not in the same way… I'd hoped that would change. But I can feel you slipping away from me. It's nothing you are doing in particular, I just feel it. Then I saw your aura tonight. It is darker then normal, yet you have some white sparks of hope. But not hope for us. I want you to love me. I don't want to lose you, I… I love you"

He looked away at this point and I realized how open he was being with me right now. He loves me, probably almost as much as I love Dimitri. At that moment I realized how much I was going to hurt him. I tried to pre-warn him, but it was no good. I was no good.

"I'm sorry…" I whispered as a tear escaped and slid down to my lips. Adrian lifted his hand and his finger gently wiped it away. I suddenly needed air.

I pulled away from his grasp and took off through the crowd. I found myself outside and stood there just trying to breathe. It felt like I had to force my lungs to suck the air down with every ounce of my strength.

I felt really weak all of a sudden till I felt someone guiding me to sit on a bench. I looked up up and I saw… whats she doing here?

Tasha.

"ummm, hello" I said awkwardly. The last time I'd seen here I was a complete bitch to her and she didn't know why.

"Hello Rose" she said with a small smile. "Are you going to be ok?"

I nodded my head "I think so… eventually."

She looked at me for a while and said "So whats going on with you and Adrian that's got you so upset?"

I looked at her, and she looked worried, a little curious and extremely… motherly. There's no other way to describe it.

In that instant I decided I would trust her. For now.

I really needed to talk to someone, and I could feel Lissa was _busy_ through the bond.

I told her how I had started dating Adrian with everything on the table, told him I was in love with someone else. She looked at me with an expression I was unfamiliar with at that point. I decided to ignore that for now and I continued "He supported me financially while I went to… when I went on…. When I was away. When I finished what I was.. what I set out to do I mean, I promised I'd give him a chance, your know, with him, when I return. I found it was easy to be near him, and I DO love him, in a way. But I can't give him anything, my heart, my soul, my… well I just can't bring myself to be very physical even with him"

I blushed and looked down. "It would be an insult to my love"

Tasha lifted my chin at that point and looked into my eyes. "I know Rose"

WHAT!?!?! What does she mean? She can't KNOW… can she? She must have seen the look on my face because she sighed quietly and continued. "You loved Dimitri." She said it so simply and easily that my jaw fell open. I Quickly shut it again and looked at her expecting an explanation. She sighed again.

"Well you know I asked Dimitri to be my guardian, and more…" She must have seen the look on my face, but she kept continuing like she hadn't. "and you know he turned me down. I'm not blind Rose, I had seen the way he looks at you, how overprotective he was of you. We had been friends for a long time and I knew him well. I always wished I knew him better, but I always let it go. When I finally went for him, and he asked to think about it I realized he might even say yes. I always loved him…" I noticed a tear in the corner of her eye at this point.

"When he came back to me and said he couldn't. I asked him why and he said he couldn't leave the princess, and you still needed him. I knew there was more to it then that… so in my hurt and anger I did something I shouldn't have, something I regret, yet I sort of don't. I used compulsion on him. I made him tell me everything. He loved you Rose, with all his heart. He had never felt that way about anybody before. He told me about the lust charm, and the kisses. He told me how you made him feel and he told me he loved you."

"I stopped it then and apologized to him. I swore I'd not tell anyone, ever. But… I'm sure he wouldn't mind me telling you now. He would be proud of you Rose, If he was here. But he wouldn't want to stop you from moving on." I knew she was trying to help but she didn't know it all. She didn't know he could be saved.

"He is gone rose, and he won't be coming back… He wouldn't want this for you"

"Yea but what if he could come back? What if he was no longer evil?" I could tell she was worried about my sanity now, damn I knew I shouldn't have said anything.

"Rose are you sure you're ok? You know he is Strigoi right? That there's no turning back from that?" I suddenly got angry that she didn't believe me, that she thought I was crazy and that she didn't care about him enough to TRY…

"You know what Tasha, thanks for the talk but I'm going to take my CRAZY ass to bed. I WILL bring him back. You just wait…" And with that I stormed off to my room…

I marched inside, turned the light on and spun around "hello little dhampir" Adrian was looked at me with his usual lazy grin, yet there was an intensity in his eyes that pained me to see.

He stood up, took a deep breath and said "you know she is right don't you?..."

**Thankyou so much for your reviews, they have made me smile so much, I understand why people demand reviews now, they do make you feel good. But I will not demand them. Please review if you think It is good, or if you have suggestions or criticisms. I will update again A.S.A.P **** Keira **


	5. Chapter 5

**First of all I want to thank you all for your reviews. It made me smile, and always makes me want to keep writing…**

**Thankyou to , zOeRoXxX, Christina, and Joanna11 who have all been reviewing repeatedly(and also to **AaZz2011, Huntess of the Moon, keke0206 , Alanna-Banana1987 and Lorlori for reviewing)

**Thankyou to Smoosey for some helpful constructive criticism regarding punctuation and use of words. It has been about 4 years since I was in high school, so I haven't written anything for a while and the rules of writing were pretty much lost to me. I think I have a better grasp on it now, so hopefully this chapter will be… full of awesomeness…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Vampire Academy**

**Aaaaaaaaand the story begins……. NOW**

CHAPTER FIVE

"Who is right?" I said as I leant back onto my closed door, my arms folded in front of me.

Adrian looked at me sharply and said "You know exactly who I am talking about, Tasha. She is right. He is gone, and he is not coming back." I tried to interject but he kept going.

"I love you Rose. I would do anything for you, I didn't even think twice about giving you the money you needed for your trip, because you needed it. I just keep hoping that I can help heal even a little of your heart and maybe I could have my very own place there. You will always have a place in mine…" He was looking at me almost pleadingly.

Once again he was showing how much I mean to him. I had to deal with this now. I opened my mouth but closed it when I looked up into his eyes filled with agony. He looked me in the eyes and continued "I am worried about you. It's been months and you aren't moving on. You are keeping me at arms length every second we are together. I respect that you don't want to get too physical and I would wait a million years for you. I know you left to kill him and I know you wouldn't have come back unless you'd achieved your goal. I know you haven't wanted to talk to me about your time away, but I can only assume you succeeded. Even if you didn't he is still dead for all intensive purposes… You need to heal, you need to move on. You need to let me help you."

Now he had crossed the line. Respecting me, perfectly fine. Worrying about me, okay. But telling me how I should feel? TELLING me what I HAVE to do? Not acceptable.

"Now listen here Adrian. I should not let this go on as long as it has. I have told you all along that my heart is not ready. I agreed to start seeing you because you argued with me about whether you make me happy. You make me very happy, I know that. I'm happy that it has made you happy too." I had started off fairly harshly but I decided to go a little easier as I saw the look on his face.

I gently continued "BUT it still means something entirely different to you then it does to me. I love you Adrian, but I don't love you the way you love me. I am still in love with him. I am keeping you at arms length because I don't want you to fall too hard, I didn't want to have to break your heart. I know how it feels. I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

Then I remembered what he said about Dimitri and I got a little angry again "As for Dimitri, you are wrong, he is gone, but he is NOT gone for good. I don't like talking about my time in Russia. It hurts. But for you to stop thinking I'm crazy I see I'm going to have to break it down for you." I breathed in deeply and looked at the ceiling before exhaling noisily and looking back at him.

"I thought I killed him, but I failed. When I got back I received …evidence he is still alive… or.. well.. as alive as a 'Strigoi' can be anyway and-"

He jumped up and cut me off "ARE YOU SERIOUS? HE IS STILL OUT THERE.. OUT THERE AS ONE OF THEM AND YOU LOVE HIM?! HE IS A MURDERER ROSE!" I felt the anger swirling within me and took deep breaths trying to calm myself down so I could talk this out with him.

He seemed to calm himself down, slightly, but shook his head in disbelief as he spoke. "He is evil Rose, he is no longer himself you CAN NOT love him" That was it. Telling me what to do AGAIN. How dare he.

Before I knew what I was doing I had stormed straight over to him and punched him straight in the face. I surprised myself, yet I found I didn't regret hitting him one bit.

"Ouch, Rose what the hell?!" he exclaimed as he grabbed his face with both hands and blood started seeping down past his chin.

"Do NOT presume to tell me what I can or can not do. I am not one of your minions that you can order around. Yes. Yes I love Dimitri.I love him with all my heart always and forever no matter what. Do I care what you think? NO!"

I grabbed a shirt, shorts and my sneakers that were sitting on my bed and turned to leave. I suddenly realized that now was the time, it couldn't continue, so I spun straight back around "We are over Adrian. Done. Do not follow me around, do not come to my room and do NOT come ANYWHERE near my dreams."

With that I completed my spin, exited the room and pulled the door closed with a loud bang behind me. I knew I couldn't leave him like that as much as I would have loved to so I searched the bond for Lissa. She was in her room with Christian, and they weren't busy… Luckily for me.

I headed up to Lissas room, Knocked on the door and quickly changed in the deserted hallway while I waited for her to open the door. She was still in her pretty dress, huh, they must have just gotten back from the dance. It seemed like so long ago we were dancing around like idiots, full of happiness.

Once she opened the door I got straight to the point. "Lissa, Adrian needs you to heal him, He has a broken nose, and I'm pretty sure a developing black eye. He was in my room not 5 minutes ago, but he might be at his by now. I'm going for a run." I threw my dress inside her room on a chair and turned to go.

I could feel through the bond that Lissa was worried and slightly panicked about me so I spun back around and said "I'm fine Liss, just need to work through some stuff." I turned away from her headed out.

I still managed to hear Lissa say "Christian…" in a pleading voice and sighed as I realized she was trying to get him to follow me.

I took off running, did a few laps around the school and headed to the gym. I thought I may as well work out some of my anger. I reached the double doors, pushed my way through, kicked off my shoes and attacked a dummy with all I had. By the time I collapsed on the floor, a good half hour later the dummy was in pieces on the floor and I heard a voice.

"Well that was certainly interesting to watch. Good thing you didn't do that to Ivashkov." Christian actually looked impressed.

I jumped up at his voice and snarled "WHAT are you doing here, and couldn't you have let me know you were there?"

"Well you looked like you needed to do that and I didn't want to interrupt." He raised his eyebrows and spoke again "And as for making my presence known, you're training to be a guardian, shouldn't you have seen me?"

Well he had me there. I should have. What was happening to me? I collapsed back onto the floor with a huge sigh.

"So want to talk?" Christian asked.

I thought about telling him, telling him everything, everything I was afraid of, everything I felt guilty about, everything I wished could happen, and everything I was afraid of losing.

Then I realized, Lissa, I needed to talk about this to Lissa, I had been keeping things form her too long. I needed to be honest and I needed to work some things through my head.

"Lissa, can you get Lissa? Please? I need to talk to her" I saw the worry in his face, yet he said nothing, he got up and exited the gym, before throwing one last apprehensive look in my direction.

I sat there staring at the wall, thinking about Dimitri for not even 5 minutes before I heard the doors open and close and felt Lissa sit down next to me.

"Christian said you wanted to talk?"

**Thankyou again for your reviews **** Hope nobody is upset Adrian got punched in the face… He DID have it coming… **


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey everybody, sorry I didn't update sooner. I want to thank for reminding me about the other chapter that was read out by richelle mead several months ago. **

**I spent the better part of last night copying it down from youtube so I can put it in as part of my story(although I'll let everyone know which chapter it is as it's completely written and owned by richelle mead.)**

**I'll just be putting it out there for you to read.**

**In the real book, she says the chapter is about 2/3 of the way through the book. It will be just after halfway through my story. Around chapter 14-15. I have my outline but I'm not 100% sure of a few details yet **

**I unfortunately own nothing. I bow down to the genius that is Richelle Mead.**

CHAPTER SIX

I looked up at Lissa and saw her looking at me with no judgement, and through the bond felt her to be full of curiosity. Also I could feel there was something she wanted to tell me, but she wasn't sure how.

She was worried about me thought. That much was blindingly obvious.

"Yeah" I said "I uh… I need to talk…to you I mean. I just, I feel so..and" UGH what was wrong with me? I am never like this. I always know exactly what I want to say, what I want to do. Well, I always did. Till… Dimitri.

"It's him, Isn't it?" She asked with concern in her eyes. "That's who you want to talk about"

"Yeah but.." I was surprised she was this perceptive. "How did you know?"

"I'll tell you afterwards okay?" she said "Just talk to me now and let me in. You have free access to everything inside me and I have to rely on my not so perceptive skills to figure out whats going on inside your head most the time."

I was still surprised. I have always been able to hide my feelings, or 'lie' if you will to Lissa. Mainly to protect her. This was new, and unsettling. I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and tried to get my thoughts in order.

"Ok, well I guess, I guess" I tried to find the words to describe all my feelings "I feel… guilty, and hopeful and… and" I looked into Lissa eyes which were a little concerned looking, but still understanding. "…scared. I am so scared Liss"

The next thing I knew I was leaning towards Lissa and she had her arms around me, comforting me. This was different. Wait, was I crying?

I finally slowed my tears and sat back against the wall. I sat there just thinking. I didn't even hear Lissa talking to me until I felt worry through the bond and looked back towards her face.

"Rose! Where were you just now? You scare me sometimes" She said "But please don't hold anything back, it hurts you when you do and I'd much rather you let me in, like you did just now"

I could feel how earnest she was being through the bond and that she was finally starting to feel like we were two equal friends instead of two friends, one of whom has to give up her own life to protect the other.

"Please keep talking" she pleaded "Tell me why you feel guilty and what I can do to help with your fear. Please."

The look she gave me nearly broke my heart, so I took an extremely deep breath and started talking.

"I feel so guilty that I will be taking you, my moroi charge, my bondmate and most importantly my best friend and sister on a dangerous life threatening mission straight after graduation. I feel bad that you might come face to face with Victor and I don't want you to go through that again, I feel what you feel when you see him. I don't want to to that to you."

"When I heard about the possibility of saving Dimitri, even though it sounded too good to be true, even though I was told its all a fairytale, I got the first sparks of hope I have had since the night he got taken down." I almost started crying again thinking of our last night together.

"Well I swore to myself that I would do whatever it takes to save him. But I cannot risk your life. I just can't. You mean too much to me. I am afraid of losing you. I am afraid of losing him. I am afraid of him staying strigoi. I am afraid of him dying. And I am afraid of what you would do if I was to fail and I… If I didn't return to you." I looked down at this point and stared at the floor.

"Rose" she said gently "You are and will always be first and foremost my sister, and my best friend. The way you are talking now is as if you are thinking about going without me. You made me a promise, and I will hold you to it. You can not leave without me. Please." Her voice broke on the last part.

"See this is why I can't do it." I said in a monotone as I continued staring at the floor "You need me, and you love me as much as I love you. I can't risk you. As much as I love Dimitri and he has a part of me, so do you. I am joined to two people."

"Rose.." she hesitated. "There is something I need to tell you. Adrian and I have been looking through old records of unexplained powers held by moroi. We believe they were spirit users, so… we have been trying to learn some new things. One thing we came across, which I have actually had some minor success with… is reading emotions. I couldn't do it at all before."

I looked up at her. Please don't tell me she knows how I feel all the time. I mean it might be hypocritical of me, but I don't think I could handle that.

"…and well, I kind of can now, but only in bursts. Only from you. And only when you are feeling particularly emotional. The only emotions I have been able to read are love, despair and hope. AND I am fairly certain you only have felt this strongly about dimitri."

"That's how you knew what I wanted to talk to you about" I said. "But how long has this been happening? And how did I not feel you feeling my emotions through the bond?"

"Well.." she began "Since you got back from Russia. And as for how you didn't you're your feelings through me…well first of all I have been becoming better at blocking you out"

"HMPH!" I exclaimed. "Not at night time you haven't, or in the middle of the day for that matter… you guys are animals since you got back together." I smirked.

I did have a small hand in their happy reunion so I didn't really begrudge her a few disgusting images of Christian in my head. It had taken a little bit on my behalf, but it was worth it. Even if they were both so stubborn that I nearly lost it. He made her happy and that made me happy. Well happy for her anyway. Although I definitely did not get any sleep the night he took her up for 'dinner' to their secret attic and they 'made up'.

"ROSE! You know I can't block it completely when I'm… otherwise occupied" she blushed and continued. "ANYWAY secondly I think you can't sense secondhand emotions through the bond, whether that's just because they were yours and your own emotions overpowered them, or you just won't be able to sense anyone else's emotions through me, when I master it of course."

I took a moment to think about this. "Okay, so you know how I feel about him. How does this change anything?"

"This changes everything" She insisted. "I was a little… hesitant about helping you break Victor out but now I really know how you feel about Dimitri, and how his lack of presence has hit you. I know that you would do anything for me, and I want to do this for you. I want you to be happy. I want to help make you happy again. You take so much darkness from me, and you have so much darkness on your own… I just, I want to help. I'm not even afraid of Victor anymore."

I could sense through the bond that everything she said was the truth but I still didn't want to put her in danger.

"Liss…" I started but she cut me off.

"NO Rose, I love you. You need this, and I need to help you. That's all there is to it. You have not been yourself since he got taken." She stopped and grabbed my hand.

"I Vasilisa Dragomir make this solemn promise to you, Rose Hathaway, that I, we will do everything within our power, and probably some things not in our power, to save Dimitri." She was serious. I can't believe she just did that. She would risk her own life to save him. I was so overwhelmed with emotions that I just stared at her with a blank face, as if my face didn't know which emotion to represent.

Lissa gasped. "What? What is it are you ok?" I asked worried.

Her face broke out into a huge grin. "I love you too!" and she hugged me in a huge bear hug crushing my arms against my sides. As she pulled away I looked at her questioningly.

"I felt it, your love… FOR ME." Her smile widened.

"Well you should always know that. I told you. You're my sis, my best friend. We are forever connected" I smiled at her and she crushed me again.

"Yes but now I can feel YOU!" she said triumphantly and jumped into the air a little.

Just then the door opened and Christian walked in. "Are we all finished here then? Because there are guardians headed this way and we shouldn't be in here."

"What are you still doing here?" I demanded.

"I asked him to be our lookout" said Lissa. "Just in case."

"Oh, well thanks fire boy." I hurriedly shoved the destroyed dummy into a bag and threw it into the cupboard and we ran out just in time to hide down a little hallway as 3 guardians I didn't know walked past talking about practicing some new moves.

We headed back towards the dorms, and split up when I had to head to the left. I gave Lissa a huge hug and said "I'm going to talk to Abe tomorrow, about whatwe just talked about. Maybe he can help us."

Lissa smiled and nodded "That sounds like a good idea. He has a lot of contacts… from what I've heard anyway."

We said our final goodbyes and headed our separate ways. I just wanted to sleep. I felt as if a huge weight had lifted from my shoulders. It was wonderful knowing that fir the first time in a long time, I was completely on the same level as Lissa. We knew everything the other should tell us and we were in sync perfectly.

I knew I could trust her with my life, and I knew that she would trust me with hers(theoretically and physically).

If only I could have Dimitri back as well, my life would be perfect…

**Thankyou again for your patience. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know there seems to be something happening in every chapter. I hope you don't mind, it's just because there's so much to go in and I was only planning on making this around 28 chapters…**

**Thankyou for your reviews. **

**They made me smile **** like that **** enjoy…**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Vampire Academy Related.**

CHAPTER SEVEN

I dreamed a dreamless sleep that night. No dreams, no nightmares, and no Adrian.

I woke up the next morning feeling slightly better about things.

I was in a good place with Lissa.

I had finally cut myself off from Adrian—even though I know he is hurting, and I feel so bad, it had to happen eventually and at least now I can't possibly hurt him any more.

AND I was finally going to get my chance to do whatever it is I can possibly do to save Dimitri. My Dimitri.

Of course I still feel incredibly guilty over Adrian. I feel like I used him. I know he was the one who convinced me, or 'pushed' me, but I still shouldn't have given in. I know what a broken heart feels like and if he feels for me half of what I feel for Dimitri then he is probably not doing very well right now.

I decided to go see Lissa first and see if she could go see how Adrian is doing while I ask Abe for help.

I kicked off my blankets and heaved myself out of bed. I headed for the bathroom, grabbing a pair of jeans and a black singlet that I love. It fits me like a glove and yet it comfortable as an old pair of flannel pajamas would be—or how comfortable I imagine they would be, I haven't owned a pair of pyjamas since I was 5.

After I showered and put my clothes on I pulled my hair back into a high ponytail and slid my feet into some well worn sneakers. I stopped for a second to find out where Lissa was when I realized she was already with Adrian. I pulled out of her head to think. Did I really want to witness what he was going to say? What state he was in?

I decided to stay out of it unless she called me. I walked outside and headed towards the guest dorms. I knew which one my dad was in because I saw one of his Guardians standing outside his door.

"Good morning Guardian Halde" I said politely.

"And a good morning to you too Rose" He replied with a little flourish of his hand and a bow of his head.

I smirked as he moved aside so I could knock on the door. I waited for what seemed like ages before the door finally opened.

"FINALLY!" I said in an irritated voice. "I have been waiti— Oh…" It wasn't abe who stood before me.

It was my mother. Janine Hathaway… With an inside outshirt.

I smirked at her and said "Well, well, well what are we doing at Mr Mazurs room so early in the morning?" I wished for the millionth time that I could raise my eyebrow like Dimitri.

"We were… discussing guardian business…and his business" she said with her face all flustered.

"Aha" I tried to put on my guardian face, but I don't think I quite got it. "so did all that… guardian business go well?"

"Very well, thankyou" she nodded, still oblivious to the fact her shirt was inside out and that it was obvious what she was doing here. "Well I think I will head out now that the ..business.. is finished."

I held up my hand to stop her.

"I think you may want to put your shirt on the right way before you go out there, or some people might think you were doing more then discussing guardian issues." I tried not to smile but I'm pretty sure a small one escaped.

"Wha-? OH" She looked down and quickly ran into the bathroom. She emerged a few seconds later looking infinitely more respectable, and once again, she had on her guardian face.

"Well, have a good day Rose" She gave a little nod and walked past me. I just shook my head and smiled. I knew it was going on, but this was the first proof I'd had.

Oh well, I wasn't one to judge. At least they weren't breaking any rules by being together. At least they weren't risking a whole damn lot to save the other. A whole lot they SHOULDN'T risk.

Oh god I need to stop this. This is why I'm here. Okay, deep breath.

I looked up to see Abe looking at me with worry in his eyes. I put my smirk back on my face and said "Oh well at least SOMEONE can get dressed in a hurry without putting on their clothes inside out."

"I assume you let your mother know before she left the room?" he questioned raising an eyebrow. Damn I wish I could do that.

"Of course" I huffed. "I can't have her ruining my good reputation now. I mean EWW sleeping with my dad? GROSS" I poked my tongue out at him childishly and he laughed.

"Well I'm sure you didn't come here to talk about me and your mother." He looked at me expectantly and gestured towards a leather recliner.

I thought of a million old man jokes about his recliner but in a rare show of restraint just sat down.

I took a breath and looked at him. He looked like he could be open minded enough.

"Ok, well you know how you tried to get Victor to tell you where his brother Robert is?" He nodded. "Well I need to know now. And I am willing to do ANYthing to find out. With our without your help." I looked at him sharply. I hadn't meant to be so harsh but I needed to know whose side he would be on before I told him why I wanted him.

He looked thoughtful and a little… smug? I wonder what that was. He looked at me, seemingly contemplating me for a while. He finally bit his lip and sighed.

"You are far too much like me dear Rose, and that is why I feel I must help you. I would rather be behind you and help then let you go off into danger on your own again."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

He continued "I feel I must know why you need him…BUT for the present, I will go see what arrangements can be made before you tell me. Just in case I am as not happy with your answer as I have a feeling I might be."

I think he might have had some idea of my plans at that point. Obviously not everything, but he knew I was crazy as himself.

"I will go now to sort out… some things and I will get back to you with…that. and THEN you will tell me why we are doing this, ok?" I agreed hastily and gave him a huge hug.

"Janine is going to KILL me if she finds out what we are going to do." He frowned a little and then looked back at me and smiled. "But you, you are worth it. I have some serious making up to do for all the years I was gone and I will help you in any way I can."

He broke off the hug and led me to the door. "Go see Lissa, have some fun. I will let you know when I have made arrangements."

He turned and headed off towards the main building and I headed to the cafeteria, where I knew Lissa was, thankfully without Adrian.

Adrian. I hope he's ok.

**Sorry about the shortness of this chapter. It is a bit of a filler. But some things needed to be done in this one…**

**Thankyou for your reviews again guys, you are all awesome. And it was I wanted to thank for reminding me about that other chapter.**

**HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! **

**Keira **


	8. Chapter 8

**I do not own Vampire Academy or any of it's characters.**

CHAPTER EIGHT

I walked into the cafeteria and headed straight for Lissa. She was sitting at our usual table with Eddy. As I reached the table Christian walked up with a tray full of food.

"Hey Rose I know how much you love doughnuts so I made sure I got the last one… FOR ME!" He sat down and started laughing. As he kissed Lissa I took the opportunity to grab his doughnut and stuff it into my face grinning stupidly at him when he looked back a moment later with a surprised look on his face.

Lissa was nearly falling off her chair with laughter and Eddy had the biggest grin on his face as he kept looking between me and Christian. "That. Was. MY Doughnut!" Christian finally managed to get out when the incredulous look of surprise left his face.

I swallowed the last of it and kept grinning at him until he lifted his hand with a warning flame directed at me.

"Christian…" Warned Lissa. "Now you were teasing Rose first, and you KNOW how she is around food…"

"Well" He looked at Lissa then back at me. "I won't burn you alive. THIS time." The flame disappeared and he returned his attention to his breakfast.

Lissa was still giggling as she pulled me outside. We started walking around the grounds, nowhere in particular, just walking. I knew Lissa wanted to talk to me, she was just sorting things out in her own head first, so we walked in silence for a while.

"Rose…" She began. "I was with Adrian this morning, I thought he might need to talk…" I didn't interrupt to tell her I knew she was there. "Well, he's not good Rose. He is a wreck. I can't pretend not to care about him, I'm very worried. But you are my best friend, you are my sister and I will always be on your side. I do think you may need to talk to him soon though. He is beating himself up, and he is drinking like a fish. He is not doing well."

"I think you did the right thing though, ending it now. You don't feel the same about him as he does for you. I… uh…" She stopped walking and turned to me. "I can do it now, I can read peoples emotions. I know how badly you feel about hurting Adrian and how sorry you are. I know how much he loves you as well. It's almost as much as you love Dimitri." I winced at his name as sadness and hope and longing filled me. "Even at the mention of his name you are bombarded with so many emotions it nearly makes me fall over."

We kept walking and I talked for the first time "I will talk to him soon. I just need some space before I do…" I took a few seconds to think how to ask her… "So can you feel everyones emotions all the time or just when you are focused?"

"Well" She thought for a minute. "I get a general feel of the emotions around me, but unless they are really really strong, or I focus on one person I don't know who they are coming from."

I felt better at that part, so she couldn't feel what I am feeling all the time, that could get embarrassing. I wonder if I could feel other peoples emotions through the bond. As I was thinking that I felt a strong sense of anger within me.

At first I panicked thinking I was pulling some darkness I didn't even realize was there from Lissa, until I saw her face and realized she was overcome with the emotion from someone else.

Well that answered that question.

"Lissa, is that anger I can feel coming from you?"I asked just to confirm.

She grimaced and nodded. "Someone is near and they are extremely angry. I haven't completely learnt how to block it out yet. I need to practice."

I thought to myself I would give her some lessons on building mental walls, if anyone had enough experience blocking out things mentally, It would be me.

I realized then that we had wandered towards the guest housing and an extremely pissed off Janine was coming our way.

I hadn't realized how good she was at putting on her guardian face until I felt all the anger coming from her, and at the same time saw her face clean of emotion. Wow.

"Hello mother, is everything alright?" I looked at her innocently as she eyed me suspiciously.

"Are you planning something with your father?"

"Abe?" I said in a surprised voice. "I'm not planning anything with him" I said truthfully, I mean I wasn't planning anything with him, he was taking care of the plans.

Janine obviously knew there was more going on then I was saying because her mask slipped for a split second and I saw some of the anger. I also felt some hurt through Lissa's new power. She knew I wasn't telling the complete truth.

As she walked off, I thought I heard her mutter "Just like your damn father" But I couldn't be completely sure.

"C'mon" I said to Lissa. "Abe must have come up with something" I grabbed her hand and we ran to his room.

Before we could catch out breath to say hello to his guardian or even knock, he opened the door and motioned for us to enter.

We went inside and sat down.

"I have managed to pull a few strings…" He looked at us with a smug expression. "We will leave in one hour. Pack an overnight bag just in case and meet me at the air strip. You two, Myself and my guardians are the only ones who know. I have managed to get victor out on day release. With a little persuasion."

I worried that he was getting in too deep, taking too many risks for me . What would happen if Tatiana found out. Would he go to prison himself? I'm just starting to get to know him. I can't lose him. He's my father.

"Rose" Lissa interrupted my thoughts. "Stop worrying"

I forgot she could do that. This was going to get annoying.

"Sorry, I'm just worried Tatiana will find out, and I don't want you to get into trouble for helping me…" I turned to him "…Dad"

He smiled a real smile at me and said "I think I am safe. Even if someone somehow managed to find out about Victor, it wouldn't come back to me. I think you'll find it would lead back to… nobody"

He looked at us with a mock look of confusion and scratched his head.

"Ok there's the goofy looking dad part of you coming out." I laughed and shook my head.

We stood up and left, heading to our separate dorms to pack a bag. This had come on so quickly, I was still trying to keep my hope at bay, I couldn't let myself hope too much.

Not yet.

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It's not as long as I promised(I'm sorry) But it needed to end here so the next chapter should have a little more…**

**Next chapter… Victor will be back… **

**Thankyou everybody for your reviews. I love reading them and what you think. You all have awesome opinions and I like hearing what you hope happens next(even though It's already planned)…**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey everybody, This chapter is longer then the last two(like I promised :P) I hope you enjoy it.**

**I do not own Vampire Academy or it's characters.**

CHAPTER NINE

I arrived at the air strip before Lissa did. I walked up to Abe who was talking to his guardians. He looked a little flustered under his usual calm demeanor.

"Rose" He breathed a sigh of relief. "I hoped you'd be a little early. We have to leave now. Where is Lissa?"

I searched the bond and found her heading this way, a little upset. She had tried to say good bye to Christian, just said we were going shopping on a girly day. He got suspicious and when he found out we were going with Abe yet he wasn't allowed to come he got annoyed.

She didn't want to hurt him, but she needed to get away so she wouldn't be late. Lissa was hurting already, just by keeping my secret. How could I do this to her? I am meant to PROTECT her. Not be the cause of her upset.

When she finally reached where we were standing she looked at my face and guessed I knew what happened with Christian. _I don't know how much you heard, but can we just leave it for now? Please? _She looked at me with her puppy dog eyes. I gave a small nod that nobody noticed except her and we all boarded the plane.

Abe had his own plane. I mean REALLY how rich did he need to be. This was just ridiculous. There were the school jets, but he wanted his own so nobody would know where he is going. All his guardians were trained to fly so all his business could remain confidential.

That was a good thing though. I don't think anyone would be very happy if they knew where we were going or what we were planning to do.

Once we were up in the air, my usual barriers in place of course, we made ourselves comfortable. I wanted to find out more about Victors release—I mean he is a high security prisoner after all—so I took the seat next to Abe, Across from Lissa.

"So, how exactly did you… persuade… them to let Victor out on day release?" I said with a neutral face.

He looked down and thought for a second before he looked back up at Lissa and then me.

"I didn't exactly get him released per say… I kind of, organized his 'prison break' for lack of a better term." He stopped for a second to gauge my reaction. I kept my face blank so he continued. "He will be under my control. After all I have to give him SOMETHING he wants in return for Roberts location."

Wow. He was a lot more like me then I ever thought. Rushing in with half a plan to get what he wants, not thinking about the consequences. He had organized a jail break. I couldn't believe it. I suppose it was better this way, that we found out about it now I mean.

There must be some kind of spy at the academy. I mean how else did Dimitri get all those letters to me? If the spy heard what we were up to Dimitri would come all that sooner. I shuddered. I realized at that moment that both Abe and Lissa had been trying to get my attention for a while.

"Huh?" I asked stupidly.

"We are breaking him out Rose" Lissa said half excitedly, half fearfully. "It's really happening!"

There she goes again, with the hope, the belief that everything will be ok. That I will succeed.

"I know Lissa" I smiled and turned to my father. "Thankyou. You are a lot more like me then I realized before. Thankyou for helping, thankyou for not telling and thankyou for being you." I leant over and gave him a hug at that point.

I thought I heard… but I couldn't be sure… I think I heard his breath catch before he whispered "I love you Rose"

Wow, emotion. This was new. "Love you too Dad" The more I said it, the more natural it was becoming. Before I know it I'll probably be a daddy's girl… Yeah right.

"Oh" I nearly forgot to tell him… "I don't want Lissa to have to heal him. Not matter what I don't want that part of the deal. He is to stay away from Lissa forever if he stays out or prison." Lissa looked at me gratefully and I felt how much she had been worrying about this through the bond.

"Of course" Replied Abe as if it were obvious. "No harm shall come to the princess. I shall make sure that no harm comes to either of you. Victor will be on told he is on 'day release' when we bust him out but we will use the lure of being free to make him give us what he wants. As long as he keeps true to his word, tells us where his brother is, helps us and never comes near either of you again he will be 'set free'. BUT he will forever more be under my surveillance. I am not one who can be escaped."

"So" I tried to get my head around all this. "He will be free, before he knows he is free, but you will control him. He will help us and you will let him out into the world BUT you will make sure he never, EVER comes near Lissa again? Is that right?"

"That is correct" He agreed. "I am still wary about letting him out into the world, but I do not lie, and I do not go back on my word.'

He suddenly smirked and continued "BUT that does not mean I cannot give his whereabouts to the correct authorities." He looked so much like a naughty teenage boy as he said this that me and Lissa immediately lost it laughing.

"So he will be back in prison within a few weeks then?" I asked

"Or sooner" Abe replied. "I do not like this man one bit. But I will do what needs to be done to help you."

That trip seemed to take forever and yet it went too fast.

I just wanted to get there and force him to tell us where his brother was.

I was also scared and dreaded seeing him. I didn't want Lissa to hurt. I didn't want him to refuse us again, and I really didn't want him to actually lead us to his brother only for his brother to refuse us. There was always so much that could go wrong.

Eventually—or too soon depending which way you looked at it—we landed at.. where were we?

I had no clue as to where we were. Abe saw me looking confused and said "We are at the strongest high security moroi prison in all of America. In Utah." He saw me still looking confused. "It's kind of a secret. Nobody is meant t know about it."

Okay, top secret, high security prison. HOW on earth were we going to do this?

Abe must have seen my despair because he said with an amused look on his face "I think you'll find Victor will be in the exercise yard, right now, by himself, unguarded."

I sucked in a sudden breath of air shocked both by the fact that it was really happening, that we'd have him out so soon and also by what it must have taken to arrange this kind of thing. What kind of pull my father has whether it was financial, connections or blackmail. I decided then and there I didn't need to know. No need to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Well" I said slowly before a wide smile took over my face "What are we waiting for?"

Abe smirked and waved forward his 12 guardians he had brought along for this… excursion. We made our way through the halls as a group and reached a large silver desk behind which was a moroi man.

I don't know how he knew this man, or what he did but Abe just shook his hand, the man nodded and got up. He opened the double doors with a thumb scan and a pin number before waving us in. Abe seemed to know where he was headed so we all followed him.

We didn't meet anyone else until we reached the exercise yards. They were numbered one to ten, but Abe headed straight for seven. He took out a key from his pocket and opened the door. Two of his guardians went first, followed by Abe, myself and Lissa. The rest of his guardians came in after except two who stood watch outside the door just in case.

"Wow" I said sarcastically. "That was some awesome high security." I looked at Abe. He just smiled and was about to say something before I heard…

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Princess Vasilisa Dragimir, her dedicated almost guardian Rosemarie and… Abe Mazur… Well, well, well hmmm."

"That's GUARDIAN ROSE HATHAWAY to you" I almost shouted at him. "I AM Lissas guardian so you just watch your back."

He considered me for a moment before saying "I wouldn't be so sure about that Rosemarie. Time will tell. Time will tell." I hated how he always did this. Acting like he knew more then he really did. I just huffed and stood in front of Lissa.

"And Mr. Mazur… I am surprised to see you here, with our dear Rosemarie. I thought you weren't a part of her life?" He was obviously trying to get a rise out of someone and I knew that someone would probably be me.

So you can imagine my surprise when I heard "Now you listen here you disgusting excuse for a moroi being. First of all Rose is not yours, she is nothing to do with you. She is MY daughter. Second of all don't play dumb with us. You know perfectly well why we are here. You take us to your brother Robert, we will set you free. Then you're on your own."

No wonder people were afraid of my father. Now I know where I get it from. He has about as much control as I do. He's just longer to practice his. Like Dimitri. There I go again…

"What makes you think--" Victor tried to start before he was cut off.

"You will be on your own, but you will not be forgotten. You will NEVER come near the princess or any of her loved ones INCLUDING ROSE ever again. You will not try to escape before we have what we need and you WILL give me what I want or you may find that your 'mysterious disappearance'" He stopped for effect and his voice, if possible became more dangerous. "Becomes a permanent one." The threat was complete and obvious and I swear I saw fear in his eyes for the first time ever.

Lissa noticed the fear as well. She suddenly found she was a lot less scared of him then she thought, and had a whole new lot of respect for Abe.

"Okay" Said Victor, defeat in his voice. "I have only a few months to live anyway. You've got me. You get me out of here and I will take you to my brother. I will help you do whatever it is you want. If I get your word Abe that you will set me free and not hunt me down once we are done." He looked sharply at Abe.

"I swear to you Victor Dashkov that once we have the information and help we need from both you and Robert I will set you free and no hunt you down." Said Abe without blinking.

"And Robert too" Victor continued "He is somewhere he doesn't want to be and I was the only one to take him out. Now I'm free I want him to be free too."

"After, and only after we have what we need we will set you both free. Agreed?" Abe stuck out his hand.

After a second Victor extended his and they shook hands stiffly.

"Okay lets get a move on" I said. The door opened and we exited the way we came in, this time with Victor within the grasp of four of the guardians.

I briefly checked on the bond only to find Lissa feeling Triumphant that we had actually succeeded. She was smug that she was right, grateful to Abe, and ecstatically happy for me.

"We have succeeded for now Liss" I whispered. "That was step one, It gets a little murky from here. But thankyou, for coming, and for facing him. For me"

I was rather impressed with Abe but didn't think I should tell him so in case he got a big head. I just thanked him instead and gave him a hug. I think I was getting soft. That's like the third hug he has gotten in so many days. Then again, he did really deserve them. I would never have gotten this far without him.

We began questioning Victor about his brother. What he's like, if he can really bring strigoi back to life and most importantly where he was. Victor would not give away very much information just saying that is was Roberts story to tell. It was around this time he realized why we wanted him, and robetrs help. He guessed correctly I had lost Dimitri and when I said nothing, confirming everything he said he grinned like it was his birthday. What a weirdo.

We finally got him to tell us where he was exactly. "It's quite amusing watching you all trying to figure out where my dear brother is. If you really want to know he is exactly where everyone thinks he is, but where nobody expects him to be."

I finally broke. "That is IT Dashkov. I am tired of your stupid, thinking you know it all answers. Tell us where Exactly he is right NOW!"

"Rosemarie, my dear I see our dear Belikov never taught you that self control you so desperately need." I was starting to see red. He sighed. "Well I'm sure you heard that he went crazy? Am I right?"

He continued without waiting for a reply. "He is in a mental institution Rose, He is not completely crazy, but he does go in and out sometimes. When he's not with me he needs to be with professionals."

"What sort of crazy is he?" I asked. "Why is he in an institution? And why did we not know that before?"

"He is in a moroi/dhampir institution, they try to keep the place quiet, it is not well known. He has lost part of himself, and his story is his own to tell as to why he is in that place." Victor said all at once.

I didn't really pay attention after that, I mean what part of himself did he lose? Did he lose it saving a strigoi? Will I lose part of myself and become like him If I try to save Dimitri?

I was vaguely aware of victor giving directions, and sometime later the plane began descending.

Lissa was watching me. She had been giving me time to myself.

"Are you going to be okay?" She asked with concern.

**Thankyou for all your reviews again. They are much appreciated. I hope you really enjoyed this chapter. **

**It will start to pick up a bit from here, but they still have to go back to court… I wonder why…WAIT I KNOW!! Lol then I can put up Richelle Meads other real chapter…**

**Thankyou Again**

**Keira**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy or its characters.**

CHAPTER TEN

"Yeah I'm good" I smiled at Lissa.

Just then Abes phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and grimaced. I think I had some idea of who it might be. There's only one person that could make him really grimace like that.

"She'll kill you if you don't answer" I grinned evilly at him.

He scowled and answered "Hello?"

"Oh hello Janine, how are you?" I could hear some loud yelling at this point even from where I was.

"Well, I'm sorry I can't tell you that." he said calmly.

"Because I can't" If she was loud before I could almost make out what she was saying now.

"Rose and the princess are fine. They are both with me and we went to do a little… shopping" He grinned at me.

"We'll be back by tonight ok?" There was silence for a bit and then something quieter.

Abe looked awkwardly at us and mumbled "You too, see you." Into the phone.

OH. MY. GOD. Please don't tell me you two are using the 'L' word?" I begged.

He just looked around the jet, anywhere but at me or Lissa. Wow this is worse then I thought.

Lissa said through the bond _wow, parent sex AND parent love, sucks to be you_ before laughing out loud. I couldn't help but laugh myself.

Abe was saved by one of his guardians who came along to tell everyone to put on their seatbelts, we would be landing in a few minutes.

As soon as we landed Victor took control, leading us to the reception desk. "Hello I am here to take out my brother Neil Robertson out on day release."

Neil Robertson? I looked at Victor after the girl went to grab the paperwork.

"It's easier to use an alias, that was noone can hunt him down in here, or if he leaves" he looked smug. "And if someone calls him Robert or Rob and they hear then they think its just a nick name"

Well at least it made sense I guess. The woman returned and Victor filled out the paperwork and gave it back. She gave him directions to his room and said only four visitors at a time were allowed.

It was decided I would go with Lissa, Abe and Victor. I was pretty bad ass and I knew my dad was bad ass enough to help out if anything went wrong. I needed to be in there, and I couldn't leave Lissa by herself. So we really didn't have another choice.

I didn't know exactly what to expect when we went into his room but as we knocked and entered, I was reminded of a hospital room. It was all white, blindingly so. The bed was small, but well made, white side table, white dressing table and white wardrobe.

Lots of sharp corners, so I'm guessing he wasn't suicidal crazy.

My eyes finally came to rest on Robert himself and I was shocked to see he looked a lot like… well… Lissa. He had the same jade coloured eyes and blonde hair. Although his facial features were more like Victors, they were somehow not as manipulative looking or as evil.

He got up and gave Victor a manly hug as I watched and smiled like he was truly happy he had visitors.

As he turned his gaze to us he took on a vacant expression and suddenly seemed to be looking at nothing. He started speaking, yet none of it made sense.

"It's too late Emily, Too late. I'll meet you at the rainbow. No second chance. Too Gone. I'm sorry. At the Rainbow" he seemed to be pleading with someone, or something.

Then as quickly as it came, his strange behaviour left and he was standing looking at us curiously.

He seemed to realize the looks on our faces as his face fell and he looked at the ground. "It happened already didn't it?" He looked at Victor.

Victor simply nodded at him and said nothing. Robert sighed. "I'm sorry, I sometimes go in and out of… I guess you could say consciousness, sometimes its only for a few minutes, sometimes it's for days. What brings you all here to see little old me?" He said in a joking voice.

Nobody said anything. Robert looked at me. "It is you that wanted to see me?" He said in a surprised voice? I nodded. "Well, what can I help you with dear Rose?" He smiled sincerely, I didn't know how he knew It was me but I couldn't help but trust him.

"I need to know how to change a strigoi back into what he was before." I said all in a rush.

He studied me for a minute before taking a breath and talking. "It is possible. I have done it, I have succeeded, But you need to know a few things. If you fail, you will lose a part of yourself, a part you will not get back. Ever. You will fall into a pit of depression so low you will literally go crazy…"

His voice softened "I know this sounds harsh but you need to know the risks involved. Also, to bring a strigoi back you need to be a spirit user and you need to… love the person unconditionally. At soul level. You much share true love so powerful that you are able to bring him back… and if you succeed you will be bonded to this person in a way that will last all of time. Your souls will be Entwined Forever."

My hopes died at that moment. I am not a spirit user. I love dimitri with all my heart, but he said 'share' a true love. I knew deep down Dimitri loved me like I loved him, but I was just feeling so insecure, that day in the cabin… It felt so long ago. How could I be so sure he loves me. What if he was just using me? And even if he loved me the way I loved him, would he really want to be bonded?

Robert noticed my silence and asked what was wrong. I told him the part about me not being the spirit user. He surprised us all then by telling us he knew I was shadow kissed.

"The part of a spirit user that allows them to reach the world of souls, is the part that the princess gave to you, you have that piece of her within you, therefore, I THINK you will be the one to bring him back." I let out my breath then. I hadn't even realized I was holding it.

I realized then what this meant for Robert, he had loved someone, and they had turned strigoi. If he brought her back… why wasn't she here?

"Wait, you said you succeeded, that means you saved one you loved. What happened to her? And if you survived then… Why are you…?" I trailed off

"Crazy?" He asked with a laugh

"Well yea" I said feeling embarrassed.

He was about to speak when Abe butted in "Sorry guys but we really need to get going, will you please come with us Robert?"

"I would be honoured" He looked at me with a smile.

We all headed back out to the plane, but Lissa dawdled behind and pulled me back with her.

"Rose," She began. "Don't forget I know how you are feeling. Why are you feeling so helpless?" I didn't say anything. I didn't want to tell her my fears.

She sighed. "Rose, we are going to get him back, he loves you as much as you love him. I know he does. You two are meant to be together and we are going to make it happen. Please talk to me, please tell me what you are feeling."

She was right. I needed to tell her. "After we hear Roberts story okay?" I pleaded.

"Okay" She smiled and we caught up to the rest of them.

Once we were up in the air Robert began his story…

**I usually hate mentioning songs in my chapters, but I just had to say the song "Go" by Boys like Girls… Reminds me so much of the chapter in Blood Promise where Rose is running towards the city away from strigoi Dimitri. (If the song was in Dimitri's point of view as a dhampir/while hes a strigoi)**

"**I know it's not easy, I know that its hard, follow the lights to the city.**

**Get up and go, take a chance and be strong or you could spend your whole life holding on,**

**Don't look back, just go, take a breath move along. You could spend your whole life holding on."**

**Oh and a little side note… If Robert was in Australia is nickname would most definitely be shortened to Robbo! Haha**

**OH and This chapter is why my spirit bound is called ENTWINED! You will find out all about it in the next chapter with Roberts story.**

**Thankoyu again for reviews!! You are all full of awesomeness!!!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey everyone, I just wanted to make a little note here saying that Lissa is not going to be suddenly able to sense rose through the bond like Rose can to Lissa. She can only feel emotions because it is one of the perks of spirit(in my story anyway) and she is closer to rose so she's more in tune with her emotions.**

**If there are other tricks she learns in future chapters, she will be able to 'reach' rose with these abilities easier then other people because they are bonded. The bond has always been, and will always be(unless there's a REALLY good explanation) one way.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing blah blah blah you get the idea… now READ!! **

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"When I was a young man of 16, I met my soul mate, the most beautiful girl in all the world. She wouldn't pay me any attention at first. But I know she noticed me. It was love at first sight. I knew she cared for me like I cared for her. There was always something against us. From the very beginning." His distant eyes got a sad look to them as he continued.

"Emily was the most beautiful girl in the school, the most beautiful Dhampir in the whole wide world. That was our first problem. I was royal, A Dashkov. She was a beautiful dhampir girl who didn't trust my intentions." He stopped for a few seconds, lost in thought.

This story was beginning to sound a little familiar… Only in my story I am said beautiful dhampir, and my Robert is the one and only Adrian Ivashkov. Only of course in my story I had already given my heart to Dimitri.

Robert seemed to realize where he was "Anyway, being a spirit user I had a few… abilities, and I had the help of my dear brother Victor…" He looked in Victors direction and smiled as Victor nodded back at him. "… To work out new abilities, and to help me train to use them. We discovered long ago many uses spirit has. I am still discovering new things." He looked at me.

"I have never brought anyone back from the dead, so I haven't experienced a bond for one. And victor has told me all about Princess Vasilissa here, and Lord Adrian Ivashkov as well. Pity about that Avery girl though" He mumbled that last part mostly to himself.

"So, back to my story, I used some of my powers to get close to her. Like Lord Ivashkov, I can dream walk, so in the beginning I began simply with this. It took me a fair few dreams before I convinced her they were real. Once she accepted that she got embarrassed and slapped me." He laughed loudly all of a sudden. "But I can hardly be blamed for the things she thought she was dreaming of doing with me."

Oh I remembered that feeling all to well. The poor girl. Damn spirit users!

"Well anyway, once she realized how I felt her intentions changed. See that's kind of another gift. It's a handy lie detector in most cases. I can tell what peoples true intentions are, even if they don't know themselves. It's kind of like reading someones mind, but I only get a feel for what they are intending on doing. Along the same lines I can sense peoples emotions as well, so together they are a good combination. As for actually reading peoples minds, theres only one woman I have met that can do that, she currently resides in Russia I do believe, the only other spirit user I know she can--"

I cut him off there "WAIT you mean Oksana?" He looked at me in surprise.

"Well, I see you have far more connections then you are letting on" He said

"Oh dear brother I have yet to tell you Rose's story that led her through Russia to destroy her beloved" Said Victor in that annoying voice of his.

I shot a death glare at him. "Careful brother, or I may not tell you if Rose intends on hurting you" Said Robert with an innocent smile.

"So ANYWAY" I said looking pointedly at Robert.

"Okay, Okay, I can sense that you want me to keep going" He laughed

"Once I learnt to read emotions I realized that she loved me, like I loved her. And then I just kept persisting until she realized she loved me and I could feel her intentions change to match her emotions. Once she accepted me and herself for loving me, we became inseperable. I would have done anything for her, I would have, and did risk my life for her."

"We were together our entire last year at school, and she became my guardian when we graduated. The queen most definitely disapproved, but I may have… persuaded her to let us be together. The final straw came when my father threatened to disown me. I didn't want to have to control the thoughts of EVERYONE, so I left, and I married my Emily, I took her last name so we wouldn't be found. Not that anyone would want to find us anyway. We were a disgrace."

"We spent years together, traveling, working, just being. Then I found out she was pregnant. It was the happiest day of my life. We made plans, Bought a bigger house, got everything in order and were more then ready to care for a little Emily." He had tears in his eyes at this point.

"But alas, it was not meant to be. At 6 months pregnant, there was an attack. 5 Strigoi came to our house while we were sleeping—we kept human hours you see—Emily fought them, but they were too organised, I tried to compel them. It worked to an extent. She manages to kill all 5 of them as I froze them. But another came flying through the door, before I could do anything he went straight for her throat. When she was unconscious he dragged her away. Away from me. I felt so helpless. I should have done more. I should have researched offensive techniques for spirit. I'll always think 'what if'…"

"That was the hardest moment of my life—well up to that point anyway—I couldn't accept she was gone. I spent my days and night drinking. I knew Emily wouldn't want this for me, but I couldn't think of anything without her. She was my world. I was out one night, wandering the streets, a bottle of bourbon in hand when I saw her. She was half hidden behind a car but she was there, looking at me. I thought I was going crazy. Was it a ghost? Had she somehow managed to stay alive? No I saw her get taken away. A strigoi wouldn't leave anyone alive."

"I could feel so much emotion coming from her. Hate, Love, Despair, Anger and Disgust. I tried checking her intentions. That's when I realized, she wanted to turn me, to be like her. She was a Strigoi. But there was a small part of her real self in there that was holding her back. Once she realized I saw her she let out a growling sound and disappeared."

"After that all I could think about was my Emily. She wasn't gone, she was still there, inside that monster. I began researching. I read all the old files for weeks trying to find out how to save her. Eventually I found an old case of a person, who I believe was a spirit user who could actually sense spirit in people who had written a piece on strigoi and their lack of spirits, or souls. He had come across 2 strigoi, on separate occasions, that contained part of their soul still. Like they had fought to hold on, and had succeeded to some point. I read and re-read his manuscript over and over. There had to be a reason those particular ones had some spirit left in them. I looked for more examples of this, but he was the only one. I don't know how he managed to get close enough to strigoi to work it out and not get killed, but he did it somehow."

"I eventually realized that the names of the two strigoi were printed on the back of the last sheet. He must have either known them, or researched who they were based on appearance, I don't know. I looked them up, their old records. This happened so long ago that there was few records about either of them. I DID however find out that one, named Kayla, had a twin sister named Sam who left to hunt her down after she got turned. I don't know how that one turned out. The second, Matthew, he had a fiancée named Lauren who hunted him down to the ends of the earth. I later learned that she let him turn her. She voluntarily became strigoi when she couldn't kill him. I think when she allowed herself to become evil, and he was the one to do it, they both lost every bit of their spirit selves and becamse wholly evil."

I once again thought of the bridge, that moment, if only he had said he loved me… would I have? I shuddered.

Robert looked at me as he spoke next. "I do believe, what keeps part of the spirit in the body of the strigoi, is love. If Dimitri loves you as much as you love him, he is able to be saved. They can only be saved if there is a little piece of themselves fighting for it. If they have lost that part, there is no hope."

I suddenly remembered the time Dimitri put on my ring. I felt a sudden burst of happiness. He loves me. He really does. There was a part of his true self somewhere deep inside.

Robert must have felt what I was feeling, because he smiled at me and nodded. I noticed Lissa was smiling at me then as well. This was starting to get a bit awkward with everyone feeling what I'm feeling. I looked at Robert to continue his story.

"Once I figured this out, I realized that the rest of the soul would need to rejoin the part still in her, but it couldn't fit in with all the evil already consuming her body. I didn't have anything to go on from there, but I worked out a few different theories. I chose the one that seemed most likely to work. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. I figured she would need to be healed of all the evil to leave that space for her spirit to re-enter."

"I also knew I would have to FIND her spirit. I knew that there was that man who could sense the souls themselves, so I knew there had to be a way of reaching them. It was around this time I met Oksana and her Mark." He smiled at me.

"They were still in America at this time and nobody knew they were in a relationship yet, but she sensed what I was and once she brushed my mind she came to me and introduced herself. After a lot of discussions, I found out that Mark was of course shadow-kissed and he walked the line between life and the shadow world, a kind of in between place for lost souls. He told me that's where he would be if it wasn't for his Oksana. I felt hopeless for a while, he couldn't recognize souls in that world, you can only recognize the spirit of your soulmate. So only I could find her, but I couldn't get in. That was when olena came up with the idea of mark calling open the gates and me trying to find my way in. It took us almost a week, I won't tell you what we went through, but we finally succeeded."

I couldn't hold myself back at this point. "WAIT!! THEY HELPED YOU?! They told me that it was all a fairytale, not possible!"

Robert sighed. "Ahhh, yes that would have been mark. Like I told you before he did not like the idea of people going voluntarily to the spirit world. He tried to make us all agree to never tell anyone what we accomplished, it was too much risk, but luckily for you… I never promised" He looked calmly at me. I took a deep breath and nodded.

"Anyway, long story short, we were able to lure her, bind her with silver spirit infused chains, and compulse her to stay still. As oksana healed her, I took a trip to the shadow land and found her soul. I brought it back and forced it into her body. Her body didn't like that too much and fought it for a while. I realized afterwards, if I had not succeeded, My soul would have been stuck for all time in the in between spirit world. That is one of the risks Rose" He looked at me sharply. I nodded again, not trusting myself to speak.

"Not only does the soul have to be healed back into the body, kind of like being stitched in. the two parts of the soul have to be mended together. It took almost all our strength but we did it. It may be easier with more spirit users, I don't know" He looked then at lissa who was thinking she would do anything to help me. "You two share a love that has nothing to do with your bond. You truly are sisters." He smiled again.

We both laughed and looked at eachother _Love you sis._ Said lissa through the bond. "You too sis" I said aloud before poking my tongue out at her.

Everyone laughed at my childishness before turning back to Robert. I had to know the rest "So if you saved Emily, umm, what happened?"

He sighed and continued. "We lived together once again, loving eachother even more if that's possible. But… you remember how I said earlier your two souls are joined, connected forever? Well our souls were entwined. Like that. Forever."

"After a few years, he came for her, the one who turned her, he wanted to make her one of them again. I don't know what made him cime back, but I wish he hadn't. We fought him and I thought we had won. But just as Emily staked him through the heart he brought a knife down into her chest as well. I tried my hardest to heal her, but she was too far gone, and I was too weak, I just sat there for days with her. I felt wrong, like I was missing the best part of myself. That's why I go crazy sometimes, I just drift into that part of myself that doesn't exist. I can't even see her in the in between. She was forced to move on even further. As she died, she made me promise to keep living, and to one day meet her again."

As he finished, silence fell. He sat for a while just remembering.

He finally turned to me. "When I brought her back, we were bonded, it's not a shadow kissed bond, I don't know what kind of bond it is. But if you bring him back, you will be risking the bond between yourself and the princess. I don't know how that would affect either one of you. As well as that you will be risking your life, your soul and your future sanity, should anything happen to him."

I took a moment to think this through. I loved him, with all my heart. But could I risk the bond I share with Lissa? Could I risk her sanity? Where would the darkness go without me? Why was everything so complicated?

At that point Lissa grabbed my hand and took me to the back of the plane after excusing us.

"ROSE! I know how you feel. I know how you feel about him, and I know how you feel about me, and I don't want you to feel this guilt. I need you to do this, for yourself, for me. If you don't do it you will regret it forever, and if you think you're hurting me by doing it, then think about the future when you would resent me for being the cause of your pain-"

"Lissa I could never-" I tried to interject but she cut me off.

"NO you listen here Rose. We are going to do this. I am willing to risk our bond for your happiness. You sacrifice everything for me, now it's my turn. I love you Rose, You will always be my sister, and my best friend. Bond or no Bond. I will work out what to do with the darkness. Robert obviously did. It will be ok!" I could feel through the bond she was completely sincere, a little afraid, but she meant everything she said.

"Oh LISSA!" I jumped into her arms and tried not to cry. "Thankyou so much. You are the best."

We eventually made it back to the rest of the group. "I am willing to do whatever it takes" I said seriously as I looked into Roberts eyes. He smiled at me and surprisingly gave me a hug.

"So am I" He said

**If you have any questions, or things that don't add up yet, please feel free to let me know, any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated…**

**And thankyou all again for your reviews, they mean a lot to me…**


	12. Chapter 12

**I am so sorry I didn't update sooner, I had my front door smashed in last night, and our whole street got smashed by a group of youths. But you're not allowed to hate me cause I'm updating NOW!**

**Thankyou for your reviews! I really love reading them. I have the story planned out, but if theres anything you would like to see happen, or not happen, please let me know and I'll try to work it in if it fits with my story.**

**I own nothing.**

CHAPTER TWELVE

We all discussed possible situations that we may find ourselves in. We talked for hours all the way back to the Academy.

Although we were freshly graduated, we were welcome to remain at the academy for the rest of the holidays. We just had to be out by the week before school began again, so the rooms could be re-allocated to the new dhampirs and moroi entering the school.

It felt like we had been gone for weeks, but in reality we had been away for less then24 hours. Thanks to Abe's personal plane…

By the time we actually reached the academy air strip we had a plan. I had decided to let abe know about the letters I had been receiving from Dimitri. I think they made him a little angry. He is good at hiding his emotions but he was too much like me and I could tell.

Once he knew, we acknowledged the fact that there must be either someone spying on me in the academy or someone being seriously compulsed by Dimitri or one of his minions. It's the only way he could have gotten those letters to me.

We decided that in light of there being a possible spy within the academy, that Lissa and I would leave the jet just as if we had gone shopping. Abe even had shopping bags full of all sorts of things to make it seem plausible. I have no idea how he managed to get it all, but I could NOT wait to get back to Lissas room and look through all our awesome stuff.

Hey, I may be on a suicidal quest to save the man I love, but a girl still has to look good…

After we left the plane and started heading up to the school, Abe took off with Robert and Victor in tow. We had decided that it would be best if absolutely noone knew where we had been. So the shopping cover seemed like a great idea.

We ran into Lissa's room, almost falling over eachother in eagerness. We ran straight for her bedroom and dumped our bags on the ground before collapsing on top of the bed and laughing so hard it brought tears to my eyes. I think I could almost believe we HAD been shopping at this point.

"Ahem" Coughed Christian from a single lounge in the corner of her bedroom. "Did you two best buddies have an awesome time shopping?" He asked half sarcastically and half bitterly. Lissa gasped in shock. We stopped laughing at once and sat up to look at him.

"Oh don't let me stop you from enjoying each others company all day and all night" He got up and turned to leave. Lissa looked from me, to our bags, to Christian all within 2 seconds and I felt the pain she was in. She loved me and wanted to stay and see what we had 'bought' together. But she also knew that she needed to go after Christian, she couldn't bear losing him and wanted to talk, but at the same time was angry that he was interrupting our time like this.

I sighed "Go Liss" She looked at me with uncertainty in her eyes. "Go NOW Liss, you need to sort him out. Make him feel like he is important to you…"

That was all it took for her to high tail it out the door. I gave a long sigh and laid back down onto her bed. The bags didn't really hold as much interest for me, knowing Lissa was upset, and we couldn't open them together.

I figured I would wait for Lissa to come back. Sure it was a gamble, they could both end up back here. Then again, Lissa WAS a girl, and my best friend. How long could she not know what were in the bags for?

Turns out it's a long time. I fell asleep on her bed. It had been nearly 24 hours since I'd had any sleep after all.

I was having the best dream… His lips were on mine, his hand trailing down my spine while his other grasped my hair... He was pushing his body against mine until there was no space between us… he started moving his lips down my neck and I tilted my head to allow him more access. Oh god I loved him. I loved….. NOOOO NOT AGAIN!!! BAH CHRISTIAN.

I tried to pull myself out of her head, but before I could manage it the whole scene changed.

All of a sudden I was standing next to a little lake surrounded by trees, yet bright at anything with the sun shining down.

"I know you're there" I sighed. Might as well just get it over with. "Come out, come out wherever you are" I called out in a sing song voice.

He stepped out from behind a huge oak tree and smiled his devastatingly handsome smile at me. "Hello again little dhampir" He said.

"What are you doing here Adrian?" I decided to get right to the point, I mean we were over, I couldn't give him any reason to think otherwise. I couldn't hurt him more.

But that's exactly what I seemed to do.

He looked at me with hurt in his eyes, yet his jaw was set in a determined position. "I came to talk." He sat down and motioned for me to do the same. I thought for a second then figured what the hell.

"I know you are planning something, Little Dhampir, something big. I know I can't stop you whatever it is, but I want you to know, I'm here for you, I want to help. I…" He stopped there and looked at the ground. I knew he was going to say he loved me.

"Adrian…" I began. "I… loved you, I still do in a lot of ways, but its not the same as being IN love with you. I don't think I could ever give myself to you fully. Especially when I've got a chance to…" Woops.

"A chance to what?" He looked both curious and wary "It's got to do with him doesn't it? It's always him."

"Adrian, I want to go. NOW" I said glaring at him.

He just looked at me sadly. "My offer still stands, I will do anything I can to help you. No matter the consequences…" As he said that everything started to fade. The last thing I saw was his sad eyes looking at my face.

I woke up still in lissas room, about an hour later. I tentatively reached out for the bond and sighed a sigh of relief when I realised she was on her way.

About five seconds later she came bursting through the door and looked happy to see me. "You didn't have to wait…" She said looking at the ground, but I could tell she was really ecstatic I had stayed.

I decided to spare her the guilt. "Actually I fell asleep, so don't feel bad, I woke up just before you came back in"

We spent the next hour looking through our many bags. I was delighted to have a few new pairs of jeans and shorts, LOTS of new tops, and a few VERY me dresses. Lissa had the same sort of things, but everything in her style.

I would just HAVE to ask how Abe managed this when I saw him next.

I decided to stay over Lissas that night, like old times. We used to have sleepovers all the time, sneaking into eachothers dorms, well usually me sneaking to hers anyway.

As we laid in bed we talked about everything, it was so great being able to share everything with the one who SHOULD know everything.

I even told her my newest fears, the ones where I brought him back, and then found out he didn't WANT to be entwined with me. He never wanted to be that close.

"Rose…" She rolled over so she could see my face. "You have to keep believing in him as I believe in you. You will bring him back, and he will love you. You know he does. Anyway if he didn't love you with all his heart, this wouldn't be possible in the first place. But it IS… because he loves you."

I smiled at her but didn't say anything. We talked a little more and went to sleep. Lissa hadn't really helped, I don't think anything could have helped my fears.

I fell asleep long after Lissa so I was very cranky when there was knocking at her door waaaaaay too early in the morning.

"What?" I demanded as I opened the door.

The guardian standing at the door looked disapproving at me and said "You and the Princess have been summoned to attend court. Along with Guardian Petrov and the headmistress.

Her majesty's orders.

Shit. This sounded serious.

**Sorry about the short chapter, but like I said we had problems last night and I really wanted to get this chapter up.**

**Next chapter will be the court meeting… then the official chapter by richelle mead will be uploaded straight after **

**I hope you all enjoy… I hope you choose to review… (I'm filled with hope lol)**

.


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey everyone, firstly and most importantly, thankyou for your reviews, they make my day…**

**Secondly… I am so so sorry it took me so long to update. My life has been hectic. I went on a mini holiday and have been working non stop before that. Please forgive me…**

**You can read now…**

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Once we had showered and woken up properly, I headed back to my own dorm room and began packing. I hated her. I hated Queen Bitch.

Why do we have to always be at her beck and call? It's beyond ridiculous. Dimitri is coming. He will be after me soon and as soon as he knows I am leaving for court he will come after me. I know he will. We just don't have time for this.

She is crazy. She marches to her own tune that old witch. And gets what she wants. I guess that's one of the perks of being queen.

The trip to court flew by quite quickly. I was too lost in thought. Thinking about everything. Dimitri, and how long until he found me. Lissa, how could I make sure she was completely protected and still try what I was going to try, and most worringly what in the world was so important that Lissa, Alberta, me and especially Kirova all got summoned to court immediately.

It had to be big. Maybe Lissa was finally going to become queen? I almost jumped with joy thinking about that. then I thought, what if she found out about me and dimitri? But then I realised I didn't care. He couldn't get fired anymore and I was Lissas guardian. So why on earth does she want to see us?

At one point I felt the familiar nausea that strigoi brought on but we were way up in the air. I figured I must have let my shields drop and the ghosts must have affected me a little differently. I had the window seat and looked down. If I didn't know any better I'd say that tiny speck down there was Dimitri. But then, how could it be? How could I see him and why would he be under our plane. I snapped myself out of it and continued my previous thoughts.

As soon as we landed we exited to plane and were immediately surrounded by guardians. "We were sent to bring you to the Queen immediately" Said one who looked like the leader.

Alberta and Kirova smiled politely and Alberta spoke a few words to him as if she knew him. She probably did, she seemed to know as many guardians as Dimitri did. Oh Dimitri, god I need to stop thinking about him…

We walked at a brisk pace all the way through the gardens and into to Queens private chamber. The whole council was there. I started to get really worried. Something big was happeneing.

The queen was sitting her ugly butt up on her throne and looked down her nose at me as we walked towards the throne and gave a little bow to her.

"Well, Rosemarie Hathaway, we meet again." She sneered at me. "Guardian Alto, Headmistress Kirova, Princess Dragimir" She greeted each of the others in turn. This wasn't looking good for me.

"I have received word that you are both graduated now, and that you--" She looked at me like I was something disgusting on the bottom of her shoe at that point "have been assigned the princess here to guard." She said this like a question and I didn't really see where she was going with this so I simply nodded politely and kept on my guardian face.

"Well I am sorry to say I did not sign off on this decision. I was not consulted and therefore I have the power to withdraw the princess from your… protection" She finished off that part with what I would have said was a snort.

I was seeing red. I could feel the blood pulsing through my veins, throbbing and making me angrier and angrier.

"But your majesty" Interjected Alberta. "We have never consulted with the queen for guardian assignments straight out of school, It has always been the decision of the council and the council voted majority in favour of Rose guarding the princess." I thought she was doing a fantastic job of containing herself. I was about ready to launch myself at the Queen and pummel her face into the ground personally but I held back.

"Ah, well that's why we are here, it seems a few of the members have changed their minds, and I have called them here to vote officially, and of course, I will take what they think into consideration, but… in the end, I still will make the final decision." She smiled a menacing smile at me.

"Your majesty!" Lissa threw herself forward. "You cannot take her away from me, she is my bondmate, my best friend and the best person to guard me. Please don't do this!"

I could tell she was really holding herself back, the darkness was beginning to fill her, take her over.

"Well be that as it may Princess, I still have other factors to take into consideration… My decision will be final."

"Lissa" I said quietly "You need to breathe, calm down" I took her hand and squeezed it. She smiled a tiny smile at me and we both turned back towards the queen.

"Please, your majesty, you can see for yourself the bond they share, Rose even takes the darkness and bad feelings away from the princess. She guards her mind, body and soul in every way possible. It would be folly to separate them" Kirova stood up for me. This was a day to be remembered. She thought I was good enough to do it. She actually spoke out against the queen.

The queens eyes flashed with anger. "NO what would be folly would be me letting them remain together when I have it under good authority that SHE was going to lead the princess off on a suicide mission taking out strigoi. That is not our way. It is unacceptable. I don't care what was going on between you and your mentor, he was obviously one of the many male persons you enjoy frequent interactions with" she looked at me with disgust at that point. "Not to mention trying to get in good with my nephew. I don't care what you think you are doing trying to kill him AGAIN. You failed the first time, you shouldn't have gone then, and you definitely do not get to take your moroi to have another go. That is unacceptable."

I didn't know where she got her information from but she was scarily accurate. Except for the killing part. I wanted to turn him back, not kill him. I don't know how I managed to keep on my mask, but I did it. Lissa on the other hand was about to blow. If I took her darkness now I would attack the queen so I settled on putting my hand on top of hers reassuringly.

The queen continued "I recommend you go back to the academy rose, that you maybe teach some of the first graders the basics. Learn more discipline and come back and ask to be reassigned in a few years. I think you are unfit for guard any moroi at this point."

She stood waiting for my reaction, but I just stood there, fuming on the inside. Mask on.

"Your majesty--" I began but was cut off by Lissa who screamed out loudly and aggressively and was heading towards the queen. I didn't know what she was going to do but I had to stop her.

"Alberta please hold onto me when I take it" was all I had time to say before I absorbed the darkness from Lissa. She fell to the floor in weakness and I was suddenly overcome with the urge to… kill the queen.

"You old hag you sit up there on your throne telling everyone else what to do, destroying their lives all for your own amusement. You wouldn't know what was good for liss if it bit you on your ass. You don't know anything! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING" I knew I would do anything to get to her, vaguely I heard Alberta yelling for help and I felt many pairs of hands dragging me backwards out into the hallway. Alberta stayed with me for a moment.

"I know you can't get rid of this by yourself, and I can't help you in the way he can, but think of him, think of Dimitri and remember this isn't you, you need to let it go." She said.

I wasn't completely in control but I nodded at her with my teeth pressed together. I laid there struggling with it for a while. I imagined Dimitri here, his body on top of mine… "This isn't you Roza…" and suddenly I snapped out of it. It wasn't me. I wasn't myself. I suddenly sat up and realised that 2 of the guardians had remained outside with the guardian already there to watch me.

They shook their head when I asked to re-enter and instead of arguing I just walked away. I kept walking and walking until I walked into something solid. I looked up and saw… Ambrose?

"Well hello Rose Hathaway" He grinned down at me.

"Ambrose…" I smiled at him. "Good to see you again"

**I try to reply to everyones reviews personally, but if I don't reply to one or reply twice, please forgive me, I read them on my email account and then re-read them on here, and If it's a few hours in between one and the other, I sometimes don't realize I have already replied, or think I have when I haven't…**

**If you don't like me replying to your reviews, please let me know**

**Oh and I'll upload the real chapter right after this… and please don't hate me for taking rose away from Lissa. It will all get better in the end…Trust me…**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey everybody, this is the real chapter written by Richelle Mead read out on her Australian tour. I copied it down from youtube, but I am an aussie and had a little trouble deciphering some of her words properly. The parts where I could not work out the word(s) I just wrote what it sounded like and then put it in italics. So all the italic writing is the words im not sure of. **

**Richelle Mead owns this chapter 100% I just copied it out for you.**

CHAPTER FOURTEEN- REAL CHAPTER WRITTEN BY RICHELLE MEAD

Ambrose was a true oddity in our culture, A male dhampir who had neither taken guardian vows, nor run off to hide among humans.

Female dhampirs often chose not to join the guardians in order to focus on raising families. That's why we were so rare, but man, they had no excuse as far as most people were concerned.

Rather then skulk off in disgrace, Ambrose had chosen to stay and work for the moroi another way. He was essentially a servant, a high class one who served drinks at parties and gave massages to royal women.

"You too" he told me "but if _you're communing with nature_, what are you doing?"

"It's a long story" I told him "I kind of got thrown out of a council meeting"

He looked impressed "literally thrown out?"

"Well… dragged" I told him "I'm waiting for it to end but it might be a while"

"Well" he said "If you're killing time why don't you come visit Aunt Rhonda?"

"Rhonda?" I scowled "No offense, but your aunt didn't really impress me with her abilities last time."

"None taken" he said cheerfully "But shes been wondering about you, and Vasilisa. So if you've got some time…"

I hesitated. He was right that I had nothing better to do right now, I was stuck on all my problems, not to mention that stupid council. Yet Rhonda, his fortune telling, moroi aunt wasn't someone I really wanted to see again. Despite my _Indifference_, the truth was that in retrospect some of Rhondas preditions had been true, I just didn't like what they've been.

"Fine" I said, trying to look bored. "Just make it fast"

He smiled again like he could see through my ruse and led me off to a building I'd been to once before. It housed the luxurious salon and spa frequented by royal moroi. Liss and I had had our nails done there and as Ambrose and I wound our way through it to Rhondas lair, I felt a strange pain within me. Manicures and pedicures. They seem like the most trivial thing in the world, but on that day they'd been wonderful.

Rhonda told fortunes in a back room that was far from the busy spa. Despite the seedy feel of it, she did a pretty brisk business, and she even had her own receptionist, or well… she used to. This time the desk was empty and Ambrose led me straight through to Rhonda's room. It looked exactly the same as before, like being inside a heart. Everything was red, the wallpaper, the decorations, and the cushions covering the floor.

Rhonda herself sat on the floor eating a cup of yoghurt which seemed terribly ordinary for someone who illegedly wielded mystical powers. Curly black hair cascaded around her shoulders, making the huge gold hoops in her ears gleam.

"Rose Hathaway" she said happily, setting the yoghurt aside "what a nice surprise"

"Shouldn't you have seen me coming?" I asked dryly

Her lips twitched with amusement "That's not my power"

"Sorry to interrupt your dinner" Ambrose said, gracefully folding his muscular body as he sat down. "Rose isn't easy to catch a hold of, figured I should bring her when I could."

"I imagine not" she said "I'm impressed you got her to come at all. What can I do for you Rose?"

I shrugged and sat down too "I don't know, I'm only here because Ambrose talked me into it."

"She didn't think your last reading was too good" said Ambrose

"Hey!" I shot him a chastising look. "It's not exactly what I said"

Last time Lissa and Dimitri had been with me. Rhondas tarot cards had shown Lissa crowned with power in life, no surprise. Rhonda had said Dimitri would lose what he valued most. And me? Rhonda told me I'd kill the undead. I scoffed at that, knowing I had a lifetime of strigoi killing ahead of me.

"Maybe another reading would help the other one make more sense?" She offered

My mind was putting together another fraud psychic joke, which is why it was so astonishing when my mouth said "that was the problem, the other one DID make sense. I'm afraid…I'm kind of afraid of what else the cards will show."

"The cards don't make the future" she said gently "If something is meant to be, it will be. Regardless of whether you see it here. And even then, well. The future's always changing. If we had no choices, there'd be no point in living."

"See now" I said flippantly "That's the kind of vague gypsy response I was hoping for."

"_Roma_" She corrected "not gypsy". Despite my snark, she still seemed to be in a good mood. Easy going attitudes must run in their family. "Do you want the cards or not?" she asked"

Did I? She was right about one thing, the future would unfold with or without me, without me seeing it in the cards. Even if the cards showed it, I still probably wouldn't understand it till afterwards. "Okay" I said "Just for fun, I mean last time was probably just a lucky guess"

Rhonda rolled her eyes but said nothing as she began shuffling her tarot deck. She did it with such precision that the cards seemed to move themselves. When she finally stopped, she handed the deck to me to cut. I did and she put it back together.

"We did three cards before" she said "we have time to do a more elaborate one if you like?"

I shook my head. "Just three. The more there are, the more likely it it is that anything can get explained."

That made her smile again. "Okay, Just three."

"wait" I said "maybe four"

She laughed out loud. "That's not how it works. Theres specific types of readings with their own numbers. One has three, another has ten. You can't pick and choose your numbers.

"Oh" I said. She flipped up three cards and then after a moment, a fourth.

"This will be a special arrangement" she said "just for you"

"as long as it doesn't make the cards mad" I said uneasily.

"well" she said "Seeing as you don't believe in them it shouldn't be an issue." Her eyes now fell on the cards, two of which had come out upside down. I didn't take that as a good sign. Last time I'd learnt that made seemingly happy cards… well… not so happy.

The first one was a two of cups, showing a man and woman together in a grassy flower-filled field, while the sun the sun shone above them. Naturally, it was upside down.

"The cups are tied to emotions" Rhonda explained "The two of cups shows a reunion. A perfect love and _blestening_ of joyous emotions. But since it's inverted--"

"You know what?" I interrupted "I think I'm getting the hang of this. We can skip that one. I have a good idea what it means." Ambrose chuckled beside me as some of Rhondas good cheer dimmed a little. I don't think she liked being interrupted. Still she respected my request and went onto the next one.

The queen of swords. Which was also upside down. "Cards like this refer to people" Rhonda told me "The queen of swords is very clever, she thrives on knowledge. She can outwit her ememies, and is ambitious. I sighed.

"But upside down… Upside down" said Rhonda trying not to laugh "all of those traits get twisted. Shes still smart, still trying to get her way, but she's doing it through insincere ways. There's a lot of hostility and deception here. I'd say you have an enemy."

"Yeah" I said, eyeing the crown "I think I can guess who that is. I just called her something and got thrown out of council." Rhonda didn't comment, and moved onto the next one.

It was facing the right way, but I kind of wish it wasn't. It had a whole bunch of swords sticking in the ground, and a woman tied and blindfolded to one. Eight of swords. "Oh come on!" I exclaimed "What is it with me and swords? You gave me one this depressing last time." It had shown a woman weeping in front of a wall of swords.

"That was the Nine of swords" she agreed "It could always be worse"

"I don't know about that" I said. She scanned through the rest of the deck, finally pulling out one card, The ten of swords.

"You could have drawn this" she said. It showed a dead guy laying on the ground with a bunch of swords driven through him.

"Point taken" I said "Whats the nine mean?"

"The nine is being trapped" she said "Unable to get out of a situation. It can also mean slander or accusation. It involves summoning the courage to escape something." I glanced back at the queen, thinking about the things I'd said in that council room. Those would definitely count as accusations. And being trapped? Well, theres always the lifetime of a possibility of paperwork.

I sighed "Okay, whats the last one?" It was the best looking one in the bunch. The six of swords. It had a bunch of people in a boat, rowing off over moonlit water.

"A journey" she said

"I was just on a journey" I said "A few of them". I eyes her suspiciously "Oh this isn't like some kind of spiritual journey is it?"

Ambrose laughed again "Rose, I wish you'd get tarot readings every day"

Rhonda ignored him "If it were in cups maybe, but swords are tangible, action. This is a true and _out-a-bout_ journey."

Where on earth would I go? I wondered. Did it mean I would travel to the academy like Tatiana had suggested? Or was it possible that in spite of all my rule-breaking and calling her royal highness names I might actually get an assignment after all? One away from court? If so, I wish the cards would tell me if it was with Lissa. That would teach me to turn down the ten card spread.

"does any of this help you?" Rhonda asked.

I scanned the cards. Heartache. An enemy. Accusations. Entrapment. Travel. "Some of it tells me things I already know" I said. "The rest leaves me with more questions."

She smiled knowingly. "That's how it usually is"


	15. Chapter 15

**Just a quick apology about the lateness of this chapter. I lost my inspiration for a while… I ended up rewriting the whole outline of this story. Changing a few things at the end to get me more motivated to continue…(I didn't like where certain things were heading in the original outline)**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter…**

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

As I walked away from Rhondas room I thought about everything. Everything felt so wrong, and Rhondas 'predictions' didn't leave me with any kind of warm fuzzy feeling.

Ambrose had walked me out of her office, I vaguely remember thanking them both, but I couldn't be sure. I was fighting to hold onto the sense of hope I had a hold of so strongly not that long ago. Rhonda did actually remind me a lot of Dimitris grandmother, and since meeting her, I have developed a whole new respect for Rhonda—Not that I'd ever tell her that. Though if she's as good as she says, she should already know—Right?

I wasn't paying attention to where I was going so it took me by surprise when I walked straight into a very emotional Lissa.

"THERE you are!" She said in relief. "I have been looking for you everywhere. What were you doing on the other side or court?"

I didn't really want to tell her, but I had made a promise to always be honest…

"Ambrose made me go pay his Aunt a visit." I sighed as I saw her eyes light up with curiousity. "Yes, she did a reading for me." I said it with an air of finality as if the conversation was over.

She looked at me in frustration, I knew she wanted me to elaborate but I just smiled innocently at her like I had no idea. Finally her frustration won out and she blurted out "AND?!"

I couldn't help but laugh, I mean how often does Lissa lose her cool—when not dealing with the darkness at least. Never. So this was definitely a novelty.

I was shaking with laughter, and after a minute or two she joined me, finally seeing the humour in the situation. Well at least she can laugh at herself.

I finally told her everything Rhonda had said over a cup of coffee at a little café they had there. She was a quite worried about the whole thing. Before she could start dissecting what it all means I turned to her and spoke.

"Lissa" I paused looking for the right words. "I need to know what happened in there… after I left. It wasn't some kind of dream was it? Please tell me I am still your guardian."

Lissa looked down and played with her napkin. I knew immediately it wasn't good, but I stayed out of her head. I'd rather hear it straight from Lissa. "Well…" She tried to continue but just scrunched up her forehead in worry.

Eventually she continued. "…Rose" She looked up at me and took a big breath. "I told the queen I would not leave you, if you have to go back to the academy, so do I. If you are not to be my guardian, I will be your moroi. If that makes sense."

I could tell she thought I'd disapprove of her making this decision, but it melted my heart that she loves me enough to stick with me, even thought I've been disgraced. I felt like there was more though so I smiled at her to continue.

She looked a little worried again. "I may have… told the queen I didn't want to go to any university she approved of, didn't want to live anywhere near the one who would take my best friend away from me and would not accept any guardians who were most likely spies reporting back to her." She said this all in a rush but I got the general idea. No wonder she was worried about what I would think.

" LISSA! You can't say no to your other guardians, even if I'm with you, you still need others, when I'm sleeping you'll need another, or when you go out…" I just looked at her in disbelief.

She looked at me like a child looks at their mother and said "But we were alone for two whole years and you protected me just fine then." She pouted just a little, making me almost laugh but I held it in.

I looked at the floor as I thought about it for a second, she was right. Any royally appointed guardians would certainly report back to her majesty. That would interfere with my plan. If Lissa comes with me, and I go back to the academy at least she will be under the protection of the guardians there.

I was still a little worried, she was giving up everything for me. "Are you sure about this Liss? You have always wanted to go to a good college… I mean, you don't have to do this for me."

Lissa looked at me and I felt a sudden onslaught of anger through the bond. Followed by a large amount of hurt. "How could you say that Rose, you are the most important person in the world to me—even maybe slightly more then Christian" She tried to make a little joke. "I would follow you to the end of the world to make sure they don't split us up. I would like to take a year off first anyway. Maybe learn more spirit abilities.. and do some traveling…"

I had a sudden thought. It was perfect. "Okay" I said suddenly. Lissa jumped at my sudden reply. "I will accept everything you have said, and will deal with it all on one condition.

She looked at me a little warily before realizing anything I did for her would be for her best interest. She nodded and said "Anything."

"You will have three more guardians. Not court appointed. Abe appointed." She looked at me in confusion for a minute before catching up to where I was. "OOOOOOOOH abe as in your father, as in a paid for team of guardians?"

I smiled at her and said "It's the only way I'll let you come with me."

She was very happy with this outcome I knew. She had expected me to be more upset that she had given up her guardians. It was a relief to her to have such a great solution, where she gets her guardians, without the spies. AND she gets to come with me.

"Wait…" Lissa suddenly got very confused. "You took my darkness, I saw it. I saw you."

I knew what she was talking about, I felt a little uncomfortable but I simply replied "Dimitri… I know he isn't here physically. But I have our memories and as bizarre as it sounds I feel as if… I have a part of him in me. I can draw on his strength to help me."

I hoped Lissa didn't think I was losing it. Without looking at her I opened the bond to see what she was feeling. I felt an overwhelming sense of compassion and understanding. No disbelief at all. When I looked up I saw the same feelings reflected in her expression.

As we were sitting I saw six dark figures heading our way, fast. I immediately jumped up and turned, only to be faced with Abe and five of his guardians. He looks upset.

"Hey Abe, I need to ask you a favour.." I began.

He cut me off "We have to leave. Now. We landed here this morning, preparing to take you to the place we discussed the other day when I found this note. On board my plane. On one side it simply said 'my roza' on the other side was a brief message.

I looked at Abe. "Just let me grab my bag."


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Lissa and I ran back to our rooms. I took her to her room and said I would be back to pick her up. I didn't want her walking anywhere alone. Even here at court. It wasn't safe.

My point was proven to myself as I entered my room and smelt a familiar aftershave wafting under my nose. I closed my eyes and concentrated on that smell. How I loved it.

It took me a second to realize this smell was too real, too strong to be in my head. I opened my eyes and they immediately fell on a dark figure standing, looking out the window with his hands behind his back. Oh god.

He was wearing a cowboy duster, and had his hair pulled into a low ponytail at the base of his neck. It couldn't be… We were in the very middle of court.

"Hello Roza" He spoke. He didn't even turn around. He didn't come towards me. He looked like he was thinking. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move.

I stood frozen on that spot for a long time before he said something else.

"You should close that door behind you Roza" Oh when he said my name like that it sent shivers down my spine. "You wouldn't want anybody to see you with me would you?"

No, No, NO! He wasn't meant to be here yet, I couldn't kill him. I couldn't do it again. He was too strong before and he was too strong now. I wasn't prepared. So what was going to happen? Why was he here?

I still hadn't moved a muscle, the silent battle going on within my mind was all but undetectable. I couldn't kill him, I couldn't save him, What could I do? Run. That's what I should do. But what about Lissa, how did he even get here. I couldn't make my mind work well enough to make any kind of decision.

Without even seeing him move I heard the door shut behind me and felt a gentle wind envelop me as he reappeared in the same place, this time facing me.

"I have been waiting for you Roza. I enjoy how your heart races when I say your name. Roza." He looked at me with conflict in his eyes.

I still couldn't speak so he continued. "I trust your father got my note? And that you have not read it yet" He stood there looking at me, I can't even begin to think what I must have looked like.

I finally found my voice. "Why are you here? Are you going to kill me? I…. I mean… Why aren't you trying to kill me?" I hated myself for the way my voice broke at the end.

For a moment I'd swear I saw a glimpse of the old dimitri. He looked like he was going to come towards me, to comfort me. It was gone before I knew it and he hadn't moved an inch.

"Oh Roza" I shuddered once again. If he noticed he didn't say anything this time. "I don't mean what I said. It will be difficult, many want to kill you already. But by my side you will come to no harm."

I realised then that I might have the slightest of chances. I also realised the strigoi part of himself was out in full force and I needed to be on my guard.

I feigned a look of relief and against my better judgement I walked towards him. Towards my Dimitri, or, well a part of my Dimitri hidden within this monster.

"I won't fight you this time." He looked happy, almost triumphant, but I continued. "BUT you have to at least give me one last wish."

"Anything for you my love" He looked at me with those cold calculating eyes once again. "As long as I get to keep you."

"I need you to leave." He was about to interrupt but I shook my head at him. "I need you to let me go, let me get Lissa away, get her some guardians, get her safe. She must be safe. From me."

He looked like he was going to argue with me, but then he gave a half smile as I saw something flicker through his head. "Fine. You may have this one last wish. But this is the last. You WILL be by my side. Very soon."

"Yes, Dimitri, I will." I said completely honestly, knowing that one way or the other, it was true.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of jewelry. He threw it to me. "Here I got you this." It was a locket. Gold with diamonds surrounding the heart shape and a picture of the two of us engraved into the top of the locket. It was like someone had taken a photo of us staring into each others eyes and gotten an artist to carve it out. It was beautiful.

"I got it for you before I was awakened. I had a receipt in my pocket and figured anything I spent that much money on would be worth going back for. So one night I went back and that's what it was." He shrugged. "I thought you might want it."

Yea, want it I thought. Want it like you want me. I will love it so much more when and if I can get my Dimitri back and he can love me again.

Once again I pretended to be really happy with it, I mean I was happy, I was ecstatic. It just would have meant something completely different if it was given in love.

Suddenly he moved towards the window. "The Princess is coming. I am leaving now. I will meet you at the Academy." He turned before he jumped out the window and said "I'll race you there" with an evil grin.

And just like that he was gone.

WAIT. He is going to the academy? This can't be good.

Just then Lissa burst into my room and ran over to me. "Rose whats wrong? I felt you, I felt your fear, and sadness, and those other feelings you get when you think about him. Did you fall asleep accidently? Did you get another note? What happened?" She was almost hysterical by this point.

"Liss, calm down. I am fine." I suddenly glared at her. " and WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING!? You don't run through the court to get to me alone. WHAT IF A STRIGOI WAS HERE?!"

She snorted and said "We are at court, no strigoi can enter." I would have said the same thing before Dimitri showed up uninvited into my room but now I was really worried and I had to make her see sense.

"Oh yea? Then why the hell was Dimitri just IN my room? Who the hell gave me this necklace?" I all but threw the necklace at her and she gasped as she caught it and saw the engraving.

"Wow…" She said in awe.

"I know. If only the real Comrade had given it to me." I sighed.

"Wait…" she finally caught on. "He was here, in your room? Oh god we have to get out of here. What if he ruins our plans?" She was firmly back in panic mode at this point.

I calmly held her arms by her side and said "Plane. Now."

Once she was calm I led her downstairs and we met Abe, Kirova, Alberta and all the guardians at the plane.

Abe must have seen something on my face because he was next to me in an instant. His eyes fell to the necklace I had put on before we left my room.

I looked up at him. "He is on his way to St Vladimirs. He wants to turn me. This is it."

Once we were on the plane we started discussing what he said to me, and how we could change our plans to suit the new location. After the first few minutes Kirova finally caught on and demanded to know why we were trying so hard to save him. Everyone looked at me, and surprisingly Alberta moved to my side and gave my shoulder a squeeze.

"Rose? What is the meaning of this?" Kirova said cautiously.

"I am in love with Dimitri Belikov and he is… was in love with me. Now he just wants me because he can't remember how to love." I felt myself getting a little emotional but pushed it back down and waited for some kind of reaction.

First her head went really red, then her face turned purple and she looked like she was about to burst. I would have laughed if my whole future didn't depend on keeping this quiet for now. We needed our plan to go ahead, and we needed her cooperation.

Finally she went back to a normal light colour and took a deep breath. "I can't say I'm happy about this. It means it was going on before he… left?"

"Yes" I said honestly.

"Well, I assume you all have some kind of plan pre-organised?" I must have looked really surprised, I mean she was taking this really very well.

"Oh you are not off the hook yet Miss Hathaway. But lets take one thing at a time." She looked at me sharply.

I guess that was the best I could hope for right now.

Before we could continue our discussion I remembered "The note" I said looking at Abe.

He looked a bit wary but handed it over to me.

_Roza_ it said on one side.

I flipped it over.

_It is almost time my love. We will be together forever. I know I said my last note would be my last but I fear I have had a change of… heart. I still want you, and I know you want me too._

_I delivered this note myself… You should know by now I am capable of anything. Do not try anything with me.. _

_Meet you at the Academy. Where it all began, and where it will begin._

_Love, _

_Your Dimitri_

I cleared my throat. "I.. I guess he showed himself to me so I would believe he delivered it himself. My mind was reeling. "_where it all began_" does he mean our love, our relationship if you could call it that? or what? Is he saying the school in general? Or somewhere specific.

Abe looked at kirova and said, "before we explain our plans, you need to meet two more people."

Victor and Robert walked out form the back and Kirova gasped.

**Hey guys, I hope you like this chapter, it's not really how I want it to be exactly, but it's the best I'm going to get to write right now. **

**Please let me know what you think… **


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey everyone, I actually had this chapter finished yesterday, but fanfiction wouldn't let me upload it, hopefully it will work now *fingers crossed***

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Kirova jumped up and gasped loudly. "Dashkov! What is the meaning of this!?"

I felt a little shocked, I didn't know they were on board… although it was probably a good thing they were. No we could head straight to the academy. Once I had gotten over my momentary shock I looked back at Kirova.

She looked pissed.

She looked from Victor, to me, to Abe and then back at Victor again. "I don't know who this other man is, but THIS man" She pointed at Victor. "is MEANT to be in prison. Somebody needs to explain to me why he is not there. And they need to explain NOW."

Everybody looked at me. I just indicated towards Abe. "Oh thankyou Daughter" He said to me sarcastically before turning to her.

"Victor Dashkov is out of jail. He helped us find Robert, and he is going to stay away from Rose and the princess forever after this. Any questions?" He finished speaking and it was obvious this was all that was going to be said on the matter.

I don't think Kirova got this though. "Actually I have many questions." She paused and thought for a moment before continuing. "But, none of those are going to help us in any way at the moment, I shall save them up for after this whole mess is cleared up. THEN I have many questions. For you ALL." She finished looking at me and Lissa in particular.

Just then Abes phone rang again. He tried to shove it back into his pocket without anyone noticing. I smirked at him. "The longer you leave it the angrier she gets…" I said with the air of somebody talking to a naughty child.

He actually looked guilty, took his phone out and took a deep breath before opening it.

"_Abe here."_ He glanced at me.

"_We are currently on our way back to the Academy now."_ I could hear her speaking, but not clearly enough to understand any of it.

"_Yes, of course. Janine,this is really important… I need you to do something for me. I need you to gather all the moroi in the school and take them to the church."_ He rolled his eyes and smirked, making himself look even more like me.

"_Of course I'm not your boss—I don't expect you to take orders from m—Janine LISTEN!"_ He sighed and rubbed his forehead in frustration.

"Kirova, please tell her to do what I say" He handed the phone to her.

"_Guardian Hathaway"_ she began. _"Please get all the moroi together, in the church and have all the novices in there as well. The older novices who are more experienced may fight if they choose, but only just outside the church. If there are any just graduated guardians still at the school they also have the option of fighting, either in the front line or at the church"_ She paused to take a breath.

"_Take food, water, all the essentials and lock down. Nobody must leave. This is very important and must be done at once. There is no time to get them all out of there. Get any extra guardians available close by and start patrolling the perimeter." _She handed the phone back to Abe.

"_yes, they are both with me still."_ He looked at me and lissa. He let his head fall back before huffing out a big breath and saying with complete sincerity. _"I will explain everything at the first opportunity I get once we are there. I love you."_ She said something else and he hung up.

Ok, so the moroi and novices would be safe. Much better then last time.

The rest of the flight went far too slowly. We reorganized our plans.

Once we reached the academy, we began our slow descent and as we were getting lower, I realised there were two more planes there, neither of them belonging to the academy. Abe smiled at me once he realised I'd noticed. "You'll see in a minute."

Once we landed, I ran out of the plane and nearly had a heart attack. Lissa ran into me and was about to ask whats wrong when she saw them too.

I had only just realised how prepared my father truly was.

There were guardians. LOTS of guardians. My god there had to be at least a hundred there! And then out of the crowd stepped none other then Oksana, followed by Mark.

I ran up to hug them both and find out how on earth this was possible. "Well as soon as you guys got a hold of Robert, and found out our…history with him, he called and demanded we come help you. He offered us money and everything. He really loves you you know." She smiled at me before focusing on Abe who was still standing next to the plane talking to Kirova. At least she looked a little happier.

"For the record, we didn't take any money. We just accepted his flight. We got here just before you did." It meant so much to me to have so many people willing to help us.

I wondered then about these guardians. Did they really want to help me? Were they getting paid? Did they owe my father a favour? Or were they simply scared of him? Once again I decided I had more important things to worry about.

Kirova and Abe walked up to us at that point and surprisingly The headmistress looked a lot more positive ehten she had on the plane ride here.

"Well Rose, it seems your father has a lot of connections. The moroi are safe. The borders are being patrolled and these guardians are about to switch and take guard. I am going to go supervise proceedings in the church. I will have a communication device as well as everyone else, so we will all know whats going on." She turned away and starting walking briskly towards the church.

At that moment all else was forgotten as I heard a shrill voice through the crowd. "IBRAHIM MAZUR! ROSEMARIE HATHAWAY!" and a very small, very angry red headed woman was headed this way. Uh oh. Me and my father exchanged glances and took a step back. She marched straight up to us and stood there looking from one to the other.

"WELL?! You have some explaining to do!" She spat at us. "I have done everything I was ordered to. Oh and WHY is the princess still here? She should be in lockup!" She glared at me.

I thought this was a good opportunity to escape her wrath. "Uh, I'm taking her now." I grabbed Lissa and ran. As we started to make our way through the crowd I turned and to my immense surprise I saw my mother… in my fathers arms, as he bent her over and gave her a kiss. UGH! Not what I needed to see.

Lissa looked where I was looking and laughed. "Guess everyone will know about them now hey?" she said with an amused look on her face.

I just shook my head and continued towards the church.

Once we reached it the guardians outside let them know through the communication devices it was us. And the doors were opened.

Before I could even look at the huddled group of moroi surrounded by novices a dark haired blur ran straight towards us and ran into Lissa.

He pulled Lissa into a giant bear hug.

They started whispering to eachother and I could tell Christian was relieved that she was with him. I decided I would hold back my smart ass comments so I just turned back towards the middle of the church.

That's when I finally saw the entire moroi population of the school squished into a comparatively small church…

**Thankyou so so much for all your reviews on the last chapter. **

**You made me smile and inspired me to get this chapter up as quickly as I could write it!**

**I hope everyone is enjoying my story as much as those who have told me they are.. **

**Once again, thankyou, and I love all the reviews you guys do for me, whether its just to say you are enjoying it, or if theres something that doesn't quite make sense or if you have any suggestions or hopes for future chapters.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey everybody. I am so sorry it has been a lifetime since I last uploaded. I can now officially tell you there will be 7(ish) more chapters after this one, and then another story(if you guys would like that). **

**I made this chapter extra long for you to make up for lack of updates.**

**Once again thankyou so much for my reviewers. It means so much to me that you take the time out to let me know what you think. I don't like it when people demand reviews, so I promised I would never do it. That's why it means so much that you guys DO review. It means you must actually enjoy my story. Thankyou!**

**I hope you enjoy the next few chapters…**

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Wait, all the students? No way. This church was crowded to the max, but no way could all the students in the entire school possibly fit in here. But that's what Kirova ordered.

I looked around for Kirova but before I could go up to her Alberta walked into my line of sight. Wow she moves fast. I was nearly a hundred percent sure I left her behind at the plane. I walked straight up to Alberta.

"Uh, where is the rest of the school?" She looked at me with a surprised look on her face.

"I thought for sure that Rose Hathaway would know about the secret tunnels under the church." She said quietly in a mock sarcastic tone. As I realised what she said, I took another look around. There were no novices. Anywhere.

"So…" I began slowly as I worked out where everyone was. "The moroi are all in here, because it's safest… and the Novices are in the underground Tunnels…" I thought a bit more. "AND up in the attic?" Alberta just smiled her confirmation.

Wow that's smart. Even if the strigoi get past the guardians, or into the tunnels, or on the roof… they STILL have to get past the novices to get the moroi. The moroi were as safe as they could possibly be. I was a little worried about the novices though, especially the juniors. But they had been placed in the best situation they could possibly be in. At least we had a fighting chance this time.

I didn't think any of the students could possibly be comfortable, but they were safe.

I could hear with my super awesome dhampir hearing some complaints from the moroi, of course THEY could complain in a life or death situation that they weren't comfortable. I felt like smacking them around the head.

Alberta took me up into the attic and I was immensely proud of all the novices--to not hear a word of complaint from any of them. The younger ones looked a little scared though, as did a few of the older ones. A lot of the older novices, however, were starting to get a hold on the guardian faces but I could still sense their fear.

Wait, How could I sense their fear? Oh of course Lissa. I opened the bond to find her still with Christian. Her fear was strong, but she was filled with a sense of concentration which took away part of her fear. It took me a moment to realize she was trying to block out the fear escalating from the entire student body. She was getting stronger to be able to block it all out. I was impressed. She wasn't even using her entire mind to block anymore.

I went back downstairs and looked back over to where they were standing. They had finished talking. Christian looked determined and Lissa looked… upset.

I excused myself from Alberta and headed over. I suddenly wondered why there was a gap in here at all. There shouldn't be, the moroi should be up to the edges. Then I realised there were arc shaped spaces between the moroi and the windows and doors. Because the doors were double doors, there was more space there. There was a guardian in each space and several inside the doors.

I made these observations in less then a second and continued on my way towards Lissa. She looked at me with pleading eyes. _Please tell him he can't. Please. It's bad enough that you are going out there._ I suddenly realised why Christian was looking so determined.

"Oh HELL no fire boy. You are going to stay with Lissa. You are going to stick to her side like glue. You will BURN any strigoi that comes withon 50 feet of her. You got it?" I stood right up close to him and I could tell he knew I meant business. The determination in his eyes wavered slightly as he thought about it.

"But I would be more help by your side." He had a point.

"That may be true, BUT if anything should happen to me, I couldn't protect you anymore, and if anything happened to you, then Lissa would have to bring me back to life…" I thought for a second and smiled. "…again… and then kill me for something happening to you. THEN if anything happened to her, I'D have to come back from the dead, bring you back to life and kill you for not protecting her. You see, whatever the situation, someones going to have to do a lot of unnecessary bringing back to life-ness and murdering. Not good." I didn't even know how much of what I said was serious, and how much was said jokingly. But I knew I meant it.

He seemed to think about it for while. I could see the resignation in his face before he spoke. "I will stay with Lissa. The whole time." I knew what he meant, even while I would be trying to save Dimitri, he would be by her side. I was glad. I could never live with myself if anything ever happened to her. I loved her. She was my sister, my best friend and a part of me.

Lissa smiled at me _I love you too._ She said through the bond. I kept forgetting she could do that. It was kind of getting annoying. Oh well. I could get into her mind, at least she couldn't read my thoughts. I smiled back at her. I realised I was glad she knew my feelings.

"So tell me more about these tunnels under the school?" I said to Lissa and Christian. I figured I could afford a few minutes talking for now. There was no sign of Dimitri or the strigoi yet.

Lissa didn't know much about them so we asked Alberta over. She seemed to know a fair bit. I was surprised she was sharing this information with us. I mean, it was obviously not common knowledge, and we found out afterwards that hardly anyone knew and we were expected to keep it to ourselves.

The last thing she said to us was "The tunnels aren't known about generally speaking. There are 6 people at the academy who even know of their existence… including you three now." Obviously the whole school knew now there was a 'basement' of sorts down there, but none of them knew of the tunnels leading out of it. I felt quite privileged.

It turns out the tunnels were actually created by the moroi. Back when they used their magic for more productive things. The earth users obviously moved the earth around, aided by the air users. The water users helped smooth the sides and the fire users hardened the walls into a sort of smooth rock that felt more like glass to touch.

I was a little worried at first, that they would try to ambush us this way, but she assured me Dimitri wasn't one of the others who knew about the tunnels. She also reassured me that there were heavy steel doors, large stone boulder type doors and other obstacles between the passages leading around the school. It all sounded bizarre to me and I wasn't quite sure I believed it all. But I knew there was at least some kind of basement down there. Alberta had shown me the door next to the door to the attic which I though had simply been a storage closet. But it had a trap door with stone steps and I had seen the faces of all the novices crammed together.

We spent another few minutes talking plans. We had succeeded in the first two steps. One. Lockdown the school, ensure the students safety. Two. Patrol, guard and wait. There were patrols going on around the entire perimeter, guardians surrounding the church and the rest of the guardians outside the moroi dorms.

That was where the strigoi were expected to go. Straight to the moroi. All we could do was wait now.

Our plans were all set, but I was still a little worried over my part. I had to someone lure Dimitri away from the rest of them… to a little clearing near the church. It was the perfect place to try to help him, close to the church in case the moroi need to flee. Well situated to guard and enough space to fit everyone involved in, plus the guardians to protect us.

I knew that if I couldn't get Dimitri by himself, whether by charm of force, he was there for any guardian to kill. They all had orders to leave him be. "Fight in defense if needed, otherwise do not attack." If he could not be separated, and became dangerous, Alberta would give the word. I was dreading that worse then anything. I knew I HAD to succeed. I simply could not fail. If he got killed… it would kill me too.

I was standing lost in thought when I realised Alberta had moved closer. "May I?" she enquired gesturing towards my necklace.

I moved closer and gave a little nod. She gave a sad smile as she looked at the engraving. He smile turned into a confused sort of frown as she looked up into my eyes. "Rose… Have you opened your locket yet?"

I shook my head and looked down, there was the tiniest bit of paper sticking out. "I never got a chance to, we've been too busy" I gently unclipped the clasp and opened the locket. I caught the piece of paper before it fell to the floor thanks to my awesome dhampir skills.

I quickly read the note.

_Roza,_

_Meet me at our cabin. Hurry._

_The wards will be broken at 12 sharp._

_Your Dimitri_

I grabbed albertas wrist and twisted it so I could see the face.

11:58pm. Shit.

I thrust the note at Alberta, yelled at her to warn the guardians and gave Lissa a quick hug and Christian a stern look that meant "do not leave her side." Within ten seconds I was out the double doors and running towards the cabin. The nausea was starting in my stomach.

All of a sudden I could hear yelling. They were in. I hope Alberta warned everyone on time. I had my silver stake in my hand and was ready to take Dimitri on. I still wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do. I could weaken him with my stake, or sweet talk him to come with me, or make him chase me. I figured I'd take it as it comes, work out what to do when I got there.

Once I reached the cabin, I realised there was no noise here, and not as much nausea. It was almost like there was noone here. I decided to try the element of surprise and burst through the cabin door, stake at the ready.

I kicked the door in, ran inside and….

Nothing.

There was noone here. I started to panic. Had something happened to him. Did another strigoi double cross him?

It was then I noticed another note. On our bed. The one where I had my happiest moment, and had shed my saddest tears.

_Roza,_

_I changed my mind._

_Meet me in the Gym. Alone._

_Still Your Dimitri_

I breathed a sigh of relief that he was still alive… or well.. not gone forever. He was still strigoi after all. I set off at a run towards the gym.I felt a little bad as I heard the battle sounds coming from all directions. I wished I was helping.

As I was running I felt the dull nausea suddenly got a lot sharper. I came to an abrupt halt as two strigoi appeared in front of me. The female lunged towards me. She was obviously a moroi before she turned. I found myself wondering momentarily if she turned voluntarily or by force. Just as she was about to reach me the male strigoi with her grabbed her arm and held her back.

"That's his woman. We are forbidden to touch her." He snarled in displeasure.

"He would never know" The female tried to persuade him. He looked like he was about to start arguing with her when I shoved my stake right through her heart from behind.

The male strigoi actually looked impressed before he dropped the female and ran away. I fought with myself for a second on whether I should follow him. He ran in the opposite direction to the gym so I let him go. Someone else would get him.

As I continued my run to the Gym, I realised how ironic it was that this whole battle was because of me and Dimitri and no guardians were permitted to touch Dimitri and no strigoi were apparently allowed to touch me. What a pair we were.

I began to worry that he wasn't in the gym, what if this was just a wild goose chase? What if he wasn't even here at all? Then I remembered the male strigoi, only he could produce that kind of reverence in a pack of strigoi.

All my fears about him not being here left me as I ran into the gym and saw him standing in the middle, in his duster staring at the floor. As the doors closed behind me, he slowly lifted his head until I could see his eyes, with those horrible red rings surrounding his pupils….

My breathe caught in my throat as I looked at him. I couldn't help it. He was so beautiful. Most would call him handsome, but I knew he was beautiful, in an extremely manly way of course. I felt my determination within me. Telling me I need to get my Dimitri back. My REAL Dimitri, not this mostly evil creature.

"Hello Roza" He smiled at me showing his fangs. "Any last words?"

"Yea" I knew my smart mouth was going to get me killed but I couldn't stop myself. "Why the hell did you forbid anyone from attacking me when you only plan to kill me yourself? And why did you make me run all the way to the cabin before coming here? What the hell is wrong with you?!"

He gave a sinister chuckle and tilted his head to one side. "Ahhh Roza, Roza, Roza… I am glad you haven't changed. Why would I let someone else kill you when I've gone through all this effort to do it myself?" He looked at me like he was actually expecting me to answer.

"Oh HELL no. Don't ou start answering all my questions with more questions. You still have more answers to give me.

He suddenly shot over to my side of the room and was pinning me down with his whole body. I couldn't help but remember the first time he had held me down like that and my breathing hitched as my heart started to beat faster.

"Well" He smirked at me, I hated that smirk, he would never have looked at me like that as a dhampir. "As for making you run to the cabin, I had originally planned to end it there, but then…" He looked confused and slightly disgusted at this point. "then I just… couldn't." His expression cleared. "So I left you a note." He shrugged.

I almost smiled then. That must have been my Dimitri, the part of his soul that was still in there somewhere, not letting him kill me in our cabin. And giving me a fighting chance in the gym.

I realised just then that the rest of the spirit users wouldn't know where I was, and I doubted very much that I would be able to get Dimitri to follow me, or be fast enough to get to the clearing before he got to me. I felt a momentary sense of panic. I was going to have to wound him… or kill him.

As if he'd read my mind, he jumped up and backwards about ten feet in one fluid motion. He looked at me with a wicked grin and took a fighting stance.

This was it. I knew I'd have to hurt him.

I thought about one of the notes he sent me and had to ask "Wait, why here? Or the cabin? Is this what you meant by where it all began?"

He snarled and attacked me, I deflected him and got a punch to his head… not without payment though, I got a hit to my side and I was pretty sure it broke a rib.

He turned and crouched down again. "I was referring to the whole school in general, you could name a dozen places here where I had memories of learning something about you, or …feeling something for you."

I lunged towards him with my stake poised to attack. I managed to put a scratch down the length of one arm and all I got in return was a kick to my calf muscle before he was in too much pain to finish his maneuver.

He growled fiercely and spun around to face me. "You will pay for that"

"But it didn't all begin here" I insisted. "You first saw me in Portla-" I was cut off as he attacked me, we spun around eachother, hitting, punching and kicking until he managed to fling me to the floor and pin me down once again.

"I saw you for the first time yes, but I was under the impression you were a deviant, misbehaving child who had led a princess into danger. I thought you were… a good friend letting her drink from you, and were attractive for an underage student… but I couldn't let myself think that so it wasn't until much later I acknowledged my feelings for you."

He stared at me for a second before something clicked in his eyes. "It is because of that love I had… have for you that I am going to give you the choice. One. Last. Time. This has to end. You can either Join me. Or Die." He looked at me expectantly.

"I choose…." He looked hopeful. "Option three!" and with that I shoved my stake into his stomach, not enough to kill him... yet. He'd be in a lot of pain, but he'd be able to be healed… I hoped.

He appeared unconscious so I rolled him off me to the side and laid him on his back. "I'm so sorry comrade, I love you" I whispered with tears in my eyes. Then I started to panic. How on earth was I going to get him to the clearing? He was too heavy to carry and the other strigoi would notice.

I heard a noise outside and looked up as the doors burst open and Lissa, Adrian, Robert, Victor, Oksana, Mark, and Alberta burst through the door.


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey everyone, I went back and added the first chapter of the real spirit bound to the beginning of my story(where I started my second chapter from) so feel free to go back and re-read it. I still thank imaVAMPIRE very much for writing it all out. **

**I copied and pasted this version from Richelle Meads website. She finally released it on her official site.**

**So I'm sorry this isn't a new new chapter… just a bumped up one… but I will add the next chapter by the end of the weekend… Thankyou**

CHAPTER NINETEEN

They looked down at Dimitri in shock. "He's still alive" I said quickly. "But what are you all doing here with so few guardians?" I was glad to see that Christian was by Lissas side just like he said.

Lissa looked a little sheepish. _I'm sorry Rose, I felt your panic and I had to try to help. I sent a guardian to the cabin and they found the one to tell you to go to the gym. He heard you two fighting and came to tell me. I got everyone together and we came straight here. _

She looked at Christian proudly before continuing._ Christian fought off strigoi with Alberta and your fathers guardians helped. They are standing guard outside._

"Okay Liss, thankyou" I let out a sigh of relief. "wait, where is Abe then?" Lissa looked at Christian and back at me.

"He's out fighting alongside your mother." Oh wow, okay. They both had a good chance of survival then. I turned back to Dimitri. We need to do it. Now.

Oksana must have read my mind because she started ordering the spirit users around, telling them what to do. She nodded to Robert who started explaining things to them.

From what I gathered, Lissa and Adrian would both be taking care of me, Robert and Oksana would be healing the evil from Dimitris body so there would be room for the rest of his soul when I brought it back. Once we returned, both our bodies would need to be healed simultaneously to heal our souls back inside so they feel 'at home'.

Mark was going to keep the door open for me. Once I went into the shadow world, apparently I would find it extremely difficult to find dimitri and to actually bring him back. If mark held the door open, we'd have a much better chance of getting Dimitri's soul out also. Mark was also to act as a sort of gate keeper… not letting any other souls out.I hoped he would be okay. They didn't say anything about it, but I got the impression this would be extremely dangerous for him.

Oh well, no time to dwell on that now. All these people were here to help me. To help us. I wouldn't question their motives as long as they were on our side. I didn't even really care that Victor as in the room. Knowing him like I do—unfortunately—I figured he was merely curious and being the nosy pain in the ass he is.

I looked over at Dimitri, Oksana was standing over his head, Robert over his heart with one hand over the wound in his stomach. He was slowly healing him and they were both simultaneously cleansing his body of evil. Apparently the evil was easier to get rid of through the wound, that's why he was healing it so slowly.

I laid down next to him without breaking my gaze then I turned my face upwards. Lissa was looking down at me with a small smile, her sense of faith in me stronger then ever. Adrian looked a little worse for wear. All these fearful auras must have been getting to him, plus I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was extremely worried about me. I felt bad, but he knew my decision.

I felt marks presence as he approached me. He was going to come with me to the doorway. He laid down on my other side and smiled at me before looking back at Oksana with a protective look. He then closed his eyes. I took a quick glance around the room seeing Christian watching us all with a look I could not discern… Alberta by the doors, talking into a little microphone thingie, and Victor in the corner watching, just watching.

Before I closed my eyes I could have sworn I saw the doors open and close, but then that could have been my imagination…

I didn't know what exactly to do, or to expect. I had never tried to go to where the spirits came from. I let myself go and opened myself up to the ghosts, calling them to me… except none showed up seeing as we were inside the wards. All of a sudden I felt a weird pull, like in the back of my skull and I was floating. It felt like what I assumed being in outer space would be like. After a moment I realised I wasn't in my body any longer. All around me was swirling white, I could catch images of what was going on in the room around me, Oksana was telling Lissa it was ok, I was still alive. Adrian… with tears in his eyes? Wow this was getting weird.

All of a sudden I realised I wasn't alone. Mark was next to me, but he didn't look like himself, he was kind of whitish and swirly like everything else. I looked at my own hands and they too were swirling around. Woah. This was weird.

_Rose we need to go, we don't have much time._ I heard Mark speak but… he didn't… WHAT THE! I started thinging I was going crazy. _You're not crazy Rose, We communicate a little differently here, and you only recognize me because I am the only other one here. Ghosts may look like us in our own world, but once you enter the spirit world, you look like one of them… Once you get into the shadow world you will have to rely on your love. Follow your love. And Hurry. _

I followed him then, towards the black spiraling circle in the middle of the room. _Thankyou Mark_ I thought towards him. I think he smiled back, but I couldn't quite be sure. I summoned all my courage and thought about Dimitri before gliding through the black spiraling hole.

Once through I realised how different this world was. Instead of white everywhere, it was all black, I no longer blended in, I stood out, a spiraling white blob of spirit. I realised at that moment that the white spiraling hole I just came out of was drawing a lot—and I mean a lot—of spirits this way. I started to panic slightly when I realised I couldn't tell anyone apart, how would I know who Dimitri was.

All the spirits headed my way didn't make it any easier on me. Although I did notice many of them were different shades of grey. Some were white, and some were almost black… seemingly full of despair. I would have to ask Mark or Robert about that later. Right now I had to find my love.

I could feel the time ticking, I looked around wondering where to begin. I was startled to see a tiny almost invisible string of white light leading from my chest. At first I was a little scared, but then I remembered mark telling me to 'follow my love'. Okay, this was weird, but it felt right so I followed it. It felt like forever I was pushing myself along faster and faster until all I could see was a black, grey and white blur. I didn't even know how I was moving; it was like... my mind was telling my body to move, with no physical interference.

I felt the link getting stronger and all of a sudden in the distance I saw the brightest, whitest most blinding light possible. It was him. It had to be.

I forced myself faster and faster until I nearly hit him. _Dimitri? DIMITRI? Is that you? _I projected. It felt like he was considering me.

I nearly said something else but I heard _Roza, what are… you doing… here? Please don't tell me you are… dead, or strigoi. …Please. _

I would have laughed if the the situation wasn't so serious. He sounded like he hadn't spoken… or 'thought' spoken since he got here. It was like a baby learning to talk.

Instead of speaking, I just latched onto him with my mind and forced him to come with me. _Where are we going?_ I could feel his confusion and decided to explain.

_I am taking your soul back to your body. _He was even more confused by this, but I had more urgent things to worry about. Like where the hell that hole was.

It felt like we had been traveling longer then it took me to get to him, though maybe he had slowed me down… I couldn't tell, this place was messing with my sense of time.

Eventually I was certain we had gone too far and was starting to really worry. I let go of my grip on Dimitris spirit, but it stayed close. I realised then we were… well… entwined.

This was weird, I didn't know where I began or he finished. If I moved, he moved, if he moved, I moved. That could get annoying. Oh well, at least I knew he was staying with me no matter what.

I thought I could hear marks voice then. Very faintly. _Thisssss wayyyyy Roseeeee… Huuuuuuurrry…_

He sounded weak. But I could sense which way his voice was coming from, so I headed that way. I went as fast as I went to get to Dimitri. All the time hearing his voice calling _Huuuuuuuuuurrrrryyyyyy…_

Alright, Alright. Wasn't like I could go any faster. I could feel Dimitris amusement at my annoyance, but I had no time to worry about that now.

All of a sudden I realised we were being followed, by many many spirits. They wanted out. I could tell. I pushed myself farther and faster until my head felt like it would explode. The white swirling hole was getting smaller and smaller.

We simply HAD to make it.

I pushed and pushed and just as I thought we would be too late, we squeezed through as it closed with a weird 'pop'. Wow. Now we were just floating. It was only me and Dimitri, I could feel noone else with us.

I started to hear voices from the room around us.

"They are back, she did it."

"You must heal them both now with all you've got, it will draw their souls back into their bodies." That must have been mark followed by Robert.

All of a sudden I felt that annoying pull again, only this time I didn't want to go, I liked being alone with Dimitri up here.

I fought against it until I realised I could hear Lissa speaking. "Let it go Rose, please come back to me" She sounded so weak. I consciously let myself get pulled towards my body.

I could feel Dimitri with me and getting pulled away from me, when there was an almost tearing sound and I fell into my body, but I wasn't all here, some of my spirit had gone with Dimitri, and I could swear some of him was in here with me.

It was almost painful, the tear. But slowly and surely I could feel the telltale hot and cold healing touches from Lissa and Adrian. I wondered when Adrian had improved his healing powers, then I realised, even the little he knew before would be of benefit, as long as I had Lissa there too. Dimitri was the one who needed the real healing.

Dimitri. I had to see if he was ok. I pulled myself back up out of myself and opened my eyes. Lissa and Adrian both looked relieved, and behind them I saw.. Janine? And ABE?! Wow when did they get there? I remembered why I opened my eyes and looked over at Dimitri. He looked like an angel. I then realised I was holding his hand in a death grip. And looked at it with a confused expression.

Lissa noticed. _You grabbed it about halfway through and simply wouldn't let go. He actually reached out towards you. It was kind of sweet. Robert said to leave you be._

The first thing I thought was that our connection must have been pretty deep to fall over into our physical selves as well.

The second thing I thought was OUR BOND! IT'S STILL THERE! I felt sudden joy and happiness before a horrible sense of self loathing, anger and despair hit me.

I got pulled in and everything went black.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

I felt light, like I was floating down a long, lazy river of air. I couldn't exactly see anything, but I could feel the all encompassing nothingness surrounding me. I felt so at peace, so… alone.

Yet not completely alone. It was like there was something else there, something that felt so familiar, yet different from me. I looked around—if you could call it that--and saw… nothing.

That was so weird.

I knew I had felt something--someone there.

I laid back on a bed of nothing, it wasn't even a specific colour, white or black nothingness. It was clear… but that clear nothingness went on forever.

As I felt myself relaxing a few thoughts occurred to me. Where was I? How did I get here? Why did I feel so calm?

As strange as it was, I didn't want to leave. With my eyes closed I let my mind wander.

Literally.

I felt that presence again and as I reached out towards it with my mind I felt a familiar tickling sensation in my brain. Then I realised who this force was.

Dimitri.

I didn't know how or why, but we were both mentally stuck in this place full of endless calm and I could touch his brain the way Oksana touches mine.

Before I could reach out again I felt the tingle in my head and realised he must have felt me and was reaching out in return.

I pushed it back out again to reach towards him and as our minds met I realised we could communicate together.

The communication wasn't so much in words, or gestures, it was more feelings then anything.

I could feel the same sense of immense calm surrounding him that had captivated me and kept me so relaxed.

Before I could try to explore anymore however, I felt that familiar pull and heard an echoing voice calling to me "Rooooooooooose, coooooome baaaack, pleeeeeeaase…" I didn't know where it was coming from, but it surrounded me, engulfed me until I wanted to follow the voice because I was just so curious, why would anyone want me to leave this paradise?

I thought I vaguely recognized the voice, but it seemed so far away, so different that I couldn't be sure. I figured I didn't have much to lose though, as long as I could take Dimitri with me.

As soon as I thought about him coming with me, it was like he was by my side—no like he was with me. As one.

I knew I could leave now with the knowledge that he would be with me. It felt familiar somehow, like we were meant to be like this. I realised I must have been like this before, vague memories of flying very fast through a black sky full of stars. I decided I must have been dreaming… Dhampirs can't fly.

But then where was I?

I let myself be pulled towards the voice. As there was no visible objects or people around me I just let myself go.

It felt like I was moving really fast but without anything to judge my speed by I could only trust that I was heading towards where I was meant to go.

Suddenly everything went black and I was alone again.

I realised I could feel my body and focused on breathing. Once I had a hold on my breathing I started to focus on my hand. After a while I felt my fingers curl and slowly made a fist in my right hand.

I was aware of voices talking, but they still felt far away, kind of foggy.

Then I remembered Dimitri. I had to make sure he was okay.

The thought alone gave me enough strength to open my eyes. At first there were just a bunch of shapes and voices moving around infront of me, but as my eyes grew accustomed to the bright white light—oh great I was in my favourite infirmary again—I realised it was my family, and friends surrounding my bed.

They were all talking but I couldn't make anything out yet.

I closed my eyes and furrowed my brow in consternation.

"Quiet everyone! Give her a minute." I was surprised to hear Adrians voice.

Then there was the best noise I coud have hoped for. Silence.

I re-opened my eyes and tried to take in the situation around me. Lissa's tear stained face was beside my bed smiling widely. I realized then it was her voice that had called me back. I smiled back at her slowly then turned to look at the others, Christian was behind her smiling at me tenderly in an almost brotherly kind of way.

Then Adrian was next to my right hip looking at me with a studious expression.

"Stop reading my aura you perve" I said weakly.

He chuckled and smiled at me. I continued looking around, there was Abe and Janine next to him and Robert, Mark and Oksana at the foot of my bed, and there was Alberta smiling proudly at me from the end of my bed.

I wondered why noone was on my left side. Then I became aware of a warm pulse that was not my own. I slowly turned my head to look at it and saw a strong dhampir male hand connected with my own. After I saw it, I felt it. Not only his pulse, but the warmth and the strength with which he was holding on.

I slowly looked up following his arm all the way to his face, I had to be sure he was okay.

We were on two single hospital beds that had been pushed together so we wouldn't be separated.

Dimitri was laying on his back with his head turned towards me. He looked so peaceful, so at ease.

"He wouldn't let go" Lissa said quietly. I turned my head slowly back towards her and grasped her hand weakly with my right hand. She smiled at me with tears in her eyes and a bit of humour as well. You should have seen the nurse trying to separate you two. Eventually Abe suggested that she leave you be." I couldn't help but laugh at the image of anyone trying to make Dimitri let go and Lissa finally let loose a giggle.

"You have no idea how good it is to hear you laugh Rose" Said Christian with so many emotions in his eyes that I had trouble deciphering them. He was being completely serious.

"Oh no, please don't tell me you've gone soft on me fire boy" I teased.

"It's just good to have you back finally" He shrugged.

Wait, finally? "uh guys? How long was I out?" I looked at everyone in general.

Lissa looked at Christian and then Adrian. Mum and Abe looked at eachother and then they looked back at me. I was starting to get worried.

"It's been a week Rose" Said Robert looking at me critically as if to make sure I would take this news okay.

I turned my head back to Dimitri, how long had be been out for I wondered.

"He hasn't woken up at all. He started moving a little the same time you did, but hasn't moved since." Lissa was the one who spoke. I looked at her a little disturbed, please don't tell me she can read my mind now. "Oh don't worry rose, I can't read your mind, just your emotions. I know you well enough to know what you were worrying about" She said with a small smile.

"So if I've been… out of it for a week, how did you all gather here so fast?" I asked.

"We have all been taking turns to sit by you and Lissa has been here nearly non-stop." Christian spoke after a moment. "I was here with her, and Adrian was the official one watching when you started to become restless. It was the first time you moved. You and Dimitri grabbed hold of eachother even tighter then you are now, and you started mumbling—but don't worry none of it made sense. Then Adrian said it was time, your aura had changed drastically. So we called everyone here, and about an hour later here we all are."

Wow, it took me an hour to wake up—I guess that sounds like me. I smiled at the thought.

I looked back up, I was really glad to see Abe and Janine unhurt and Alberta too. I was extremely grateful to Robert, Oksana and Mark too. I really wanted to know what happened with the rest of the Strigoi but first I had to know.

"Is he?..." I trailed off unwilling to finish my question.

"He is dhampir" Said Robert straightforwardly. "But we don't know what side effects there are yet" I nodded. I had a few ideas.

I became aware of worry and sadness from Lissa and then heard a hesitant _Was the loss of our bond part of the side effects?_ I waited a second and felt her depression building as she tried to fight off the thoughts that we weren't bonded anymore.

I decided to spare her. I turned to her and with a huge smile I said "Jeez Liss, of course our bond is still there, you can't get rid of me that easily."

She looked up, suddenly filled with joy. Before I knew it she had me in a tight hug.

"Air, Liss, I need air" I choked.

She pulled back and punched my in the arm. "THAT'S for making me think we had lost it." She said fiercly, though I knew she was really happy.

I turned my head back to Dimitri and sighed quietly. Just then I heard Alberta come back into the room.

"I got the nurse to come and check over Rose. I think we should all give her some time alone with Dimitri" She started shooing everyone out.

As they left I got hugs from everyone and to my immense surprise, kisses on both cheeks from Janine and from my father. They had been very quiet all this time. My Mum walked out stiffly and Abe smiled at me with a tear in his eye before following her out of the room. I'd have to talk to him later.

I realised I was alone now with the nurse. And Dimitri.

She began checking my vitals and making sure I was okay. She tried to get me to let go of Dimitri but he had a tight grip on me and I didn't really want to let go—despite the almost numbness from having my hand in one position for so long.

I tried thinking back to the place I had traveled to bring his soul back and found I couldn't remember a lot. All I could remember was darkness and stars. Weird.

I wasn't sure I WANTED to remember. Then again I could remember that clear place full of nothing. That was weird. Like nothing I had ever seen, nothing I could ever explain. But it felt nice.

I remembered reaching out towards Dimitri in that place and wondered if I could do it again.

I tried reaching out the way I did when I wanted to get into Lissa's head, letting down my walls and searching for him. I finally touched his mind and found that it felt familiar to me, like home.

_Roza, is that you?_ I heard his voice, but his mouth didn't move. _Roza?_

"Dimitri?" I said a little unsure of what I heard.

_I love you Roza. _I heard him again. He was talking to me through his mind.

I think I discovered a side effect

_I love you too Dimitri_ I tried to project the way he did to me.

His sleeping face smiled slightly.

It worked!

I pulled my mind away and tried to talk again _Can you hear me?_

No answer.

I reached out towards him again and once we joined I heard him. _I felt it, I felt you leave and then you came back. I can't wake up, but I can feel you next to me. What's going on?_

I wondered how much he remembered _We have been dead to the world for a week. What do you remember?_

_I remember the caves… I remember… weird things, strange memories that come from nowhere. _As he spoke I saw memories, him running, watching me, walking the streets of Russia…_What Happened?_

I didn't know how much to tell him. _I don't want to tell you everything like this, I want you to wake up first._

I could feel dark emotion coming into me again, that self loathing and despair that pulled me under after I brought Dimitri back. I thought it was coming from Dimitri, but I didn't see how, I mean he didn't remember anything about being a strigoi… did he? It wasn't the usual darkness, I felt that more as a force, usually spent in anger. This was different, this was depression.

I wanted desperately for him to wake up so I could talk face to face. I latched onto his mind and pulled it gently with my own. _What are you doing?_ He asked.

I ignored his question and concentrated on pulling him back into his body. I felt it within him, but it was in a place his body couldn't reach, I wasn't sure I understood all the implications, but I was a little worried. Was it really that easy for his spirit to leave his body again? Or was it just his mind? I resolved to figure it all out.

After a little while I felt his mind slide into place—as weird as that sounds—and let go.

I laid there watching his face and as he opened his gorgeous brown eyes I was rewarded with one of his heart melting smiles. I was so happy, his eyes weren't red. He was himself again.

We just lay like that for a long time until he looked at our hands and smiled. "Why have I got such a strong grip on you Roza?" He looked around a little confused. "and why are we in the infirmary?" He looked a little worried at this point. "Should I be holding your hand in here? I don't want you to get expelled" I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes.

"A lot has happened in the last six months or so. I am a fully fledged guardian. Graduated top of the class, thanks to my kick ass mentor." I looked at him as he tried to understand.

"I know theres more you aren't telling me. I had a weird dream, I was in a place full of nothing. Nothing at all, except you. You were talking to me, into my mind." He was staring into my eyes. "Six months you say. What happened? I have flashes of memory, and this overwhelming sense of despair, unhappiness and anger. But no reason for it. I am happy to be with you right now, but I am so confused." He closed his eyes and his forehead crinkled as his eyebrows were drawn together.

"I think you need to be checked out by the nurse first" I said a little worried about what his reaction would be. To what had happened to him, the things he'd done, the things I'd done to save him… and now our bond.

I didn't think for one moment he didn't love me. But I was afraid, really afraid of what would happen when he found out the truth.

I pushed the button next to my bed for the nurse and she came in just as we were detangling our hands. We both clenched and unclenched them for a while to get the circulation back.

As the nurse was taking Dimitris pulse I tried opening my mind to him again, as I felt him I hesitantly said_ Dimitri? Can you hear me?_

"Of course I can Roza" He smiled at me. I gasped.

_No Dimitri… You can HEAR me_. I said as I watched his face carefully. He looked confused for a second and then I heard him.

_Roza? Can you hear me?_ I just smiled back at him and nodded.

This was going to take some getting used to. We were staring at eachother at this point and didn't notice everyone crowding back into the room.

He didn't know, he couldn't know yet. I looked up in panic and my eyes met Robert, _He doesn't know. He doesn't remember anything. Please don't let anyone say anything about it yet, I need to tell him in his own time._ I pleaded with my eyes.

_I will tell everyone not to mention anything_ He said. I assumed he told everyone through their minds not to mention anything about his time as a strigoi. But I couldn't have been sure.

"It's good to see you awake Guardian Belikov. Dimitri." Alberta smiled down at him. I noticed she didn't welcome him back or say anything like 'It's good to have you back'.

I was grateful to Robert and thanked him silently.

I really hoped we would get through this. I couldn't lose him again. I just couldn't.

**Hey everybody. Thankyou so much for sticking with me and with this story. I know you have had to wait a lifetime(or a month—same thing) for this chapter. I will do my very very best to make sure it doesn't happen again. **

**I have written a new song fic-cy type fanfiction, based on one song, three conversations, one for each chapter between rose and dimitri- named The Bramble and the Rose.(will be uploaded in the next 24 hours)**

**The fanfictioner(who does not particularly wish to be named) who requested that story has also unintentionally given me the inspiration to finish this chapter and keep working on the next ones.**

**To be completely honest, I wasn't enjoying my writing. I felt it was a little predictable, I had some form of writers block, no muse etc etc.**

**I still do to some point. I have re written some of the storyline from here on out, and a new storyline for a story after that one.**

**I have a lot of other stuff going on at the moment … But I won't go into all of that. **

**Writing is very important to me, and I will make time for it.**

**I make a personal vow, right now, to see this story through to the very end, as soon as humanly possible. I won't make any promises for a follow on story(although I have the storyline for it) because I want to make sure I'll have enough inspiration and drive to also see that one through. **

**I refuse to let my story remain unfinished forever on FanFiction… **

**Anyway that's my two cents worth. **

**Thankyou very very much to all those people who have reviewed, once or constantly, they have all meant so much to me, and helped me get a move along as well(how could anyone say no to all those pleadings and sad faces?)**

**As always, I ask that if you feel it is deserving to leave a review, nice or constructive, it all helps. I hope you have been, are and will continue to enjoy my story.**

**I am so grateful for this outlet, to be able to write, and to be able to be critiqued.**

**Thankyou**


	21. Chapter 21

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

"Thankyou Guardian Petrov, Alberta." He smiled at her before looking down in frustration. "If only I could remember everything—or anything—that has happened in the last…" He looked up at me. "…Six months…"

I know he really wanted to know, but I needed to tell him alone, once he was better and DEFINITELY not here, surrounded by our friends and my family… especially being in the infirmary, just having been healed. No. He'd have to wait.

I shook my head slightly at him and he sighed. Luckily he was looking down or he would have seen all the awkward looks everyone was giving each other about him not remembering being a strigoi. I know no one there envied me having the job of explaining everything to him.

"Well you are good to go Guardian Hathaway. However Guardian Belikov, we are going to need you to remain here under observation overnight." The Nurse picked the best time possible to deliver the news. She exited our room as soon as the words left her mouth so he couldn't object.

"Excellent, Rose, we need you to come to the guardian lounge in half an hour to discuss… previous events" Alberta said with only the slightest pause.

"I will be there Guardian Petrov" I smiled. Dimitri was looking back and forth between us, He knew something was up.

"Well now that's settled, I shall go get myself cleaned up and organize the rest of the Guardians so we have everyone we need at the meeting." Alberta gave a quick nod to everyone in the room and walked briskly out of the infirmary.

Robert said a quick word to Mark and Oksana and they too, took their leave, mentioning sleep and food. At that point I realised how hungry I was. My stomach actually growled.

Everyone—including Dimitri—laughed at my stomach, or the look on my face, i'm not sure which.

"Oh Rose… I didn't think how hungry you must be after you… uh… after what happened." Lissa tried to cover herself, but failed miserably and instead turned a deep red shade. "C'mon Christian, lets go get Rose something from the Cafeteria" She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room despite his confused expression. He mustn't have realised Lissa nearly told Dimitri about me risking my life and soul for him.

Dimitri looked at me quizzically and I knew I'd have to explain soon. Trying to avoid his gaze I looked up and realised the only ones left in our room was Abe and Janine. My Mum and Dad. Well this wasn't something I thought I'd ever see—my mother and father in a room with me and the man I love.

Janine was looking at Dimitri; I could easily read her mind. She was thinking that she would like to stab him with her stake. Or maybe threaten him with bodily harm if he ever hurt me. I was hoping it would just be a warning.

Abe, however, was looking directly at me. His face was quite stern and I wondered what he was actually thinking about.

'You really love him." He finally said still staring at me.

Automatically my sarcastic side kicked in. "OH really? At what point did you get that? When I said I'd do anything for him, or when I risked my own life for him? Was my own word not enough for you when I told you in Russia?" I heard a loud gasp from my left side and realised what I'd said. SHIT.

I turned apprehensively to Dimitri. He was looking at me in shock. "You were… you were in Russia. Those memories I have… are real? But it's not possible… I…" He trailed off into silence.

"Your mother and I will leave now. I love you Rose." Abe said as he touched his right cheek to mine.

"Yes… We will go now" Janine said a little worriedly. "Twenty Five minutes Rose. Don't be late." They both walked out of the room quickly, desperate to not be there when Dimitri found out about his past.

After the door closed behind them I realised I had nowhere else to look except back at Dimitri. I bit my lip and looked down at the floor dragging my eyes across the floor and slowly up the side of his bed, unwilling to actually lay eyes on his confused face.

"What is the meeting about?" He asked straightforwardly.

I decided to tell him about the attack now, and then everything else after the meeting. "There was an attack on the school. Another one like the one where you… the one you remember… in the caves." Oh this was going to be hard. For every question I answered he was definitely going to have at least two more.

He looked at me expectantly, raising his eyebrow as an invitation to continue.

"Look, Dimitri…" I began. "I need to go to this meeting. But then… Then I will explain everything to you, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Okay? Can you wait a little while? It's going to take a while to explain. I think you should try to get some rest. You look a little tired." I kissed his lips and held his hand for a second before getting up to leave. "I love you Dimitri" I said before turning to head out the door.

"I love you with all my heart and soul my Roza" I heard him say before the door closed. I looked up and met his eyes as the door closed. I hope my eyes were as full of my love for him as his were for me.

I walked quickly through the corridors, trying to put distance between me and the horrific

task of telling the love of my life he was a strigoi…who tried to kill me. I also really wanted to get to that meeting, and find out what happened to everyone.

As I walked in the room the many hushed conversations around the room came to an abrupt halt and Alberta stood up at the head of the table. "Ah Rose, you are early. Excellent."

It looked like everyone had been early by how packed this room was. Alberta must have seen my face because she explained for me. "The meeting was supposed to start a little while ago, but then you woke up and I decided we would wait for you."

I nodded my thanks and she motioned to a seat by her side. I walked over and sat down.

"As most of you know" Alberta began. "We fought long and hard into the night. I am saddened to report the six casualties on our side. Everyone fought long and hard and though these guardians will be missed; it could have been a whole lot worse. We will have a service in the morning for them. I hope to see you all there."

"Secondly, as far as we are aware we managed to kill all of the strigoi, except for a select few who retreated once they realised they were losing. Unfortunately for them, they didn't realize how close dawn was, so when we discovered them hiding in the caves again, we ambushed and killed them, there were twenty two total left in there. I am pleased to report no casualties for this raid and that now all the strigoi are defeated from that large group. Because all our moroi and novices were safely hidden before they got here, they didn't get anyone. It was an almost complete success."

"Thirdly, I know most of you are aware that roughly six months ago, we lost one of the best guardians to the strigoi, and he came back last night to fight amongst them." I noticed she didn't say he was their leader. Probably a good idea, who knows how many people would be nasty to him for it.

"He is now dhampir once again. Changed through the powers of spirit… and love." She looked at me. Suddenly I realised she wanted me to speak. Ugh. "Rose has managed to bring him back, but from what I understand it can only be replicated under the most specific conditions. Rose?" She sat down and motioned for me to take her place.

I stood up and took a deep breath. I think I understood now, she wanted me to let people know he was back to normal, and that it couldn't be done for just any old strigoi. I figured now was as good a time as any to explain about our relationship as well seeing as she already mentioned the 'L' word.

"Okay, well I guess first of all Dimitri is Dhampir again, but he doesn't remember anything from the time he was turned. If any of you happen to see him, please don't remind him yet, I need to explain it all to him in our own time. Please listen to me when I say, bringing him back was extremely dangerous. I could have lost my life, or my soul at several different times, and we have both changed now."

I looked around the room at each guardian and said very carefully. "This procedure is nearly impossible to accomplish, and can only be done with certain situations. I can NOT ever repeat this again. The strigoi in question must have a little of his old spirit within him still, to bring him back you have to be or be connected to a spirit user and the very few who are actually able to bring them back have to be in love with that person before they were strigoi…" I heard a few gasps and hushed whispers as they understood the implications. "…and that person has to have been in love with the one bringing them back."

At that point the whole room broke into chaos, full of people unbelieving that two dhampirs could be in love, or that we had allowed it knowing we were student and mentor before he was changed. Then again there were those few that were defending us.

Over the noise and confusion I heard a loud familiar voice booming through the crowd.

"SILENCE!" Screamed none other then my mother Janine. "Rose has achieved the impossible, bringing Guardian Belikov back from the dark side"—I had to restrain myself from making a bad start wars reference—not that I watch much star wars.

"—and she does not deserve all you people judging her. I stand by all her decisions, and respect everything she does. My daughter is an exemplary guardian and I am willing to bet she is a lot better then most of the guardians in here. I know we don't get what we want in life. I—more then anyone here—know that 'they come first'. But sometimes, sometimes we have to do something for ourselves. I know many of you who have been in love with fellow guardians. Do you so begrudge my daughter a little happiness? She has more then earned this little happiness. She is not giving up her guardianship as far as I am aware and as for her age, who can choose who they fall in love with? They are both old enough to know what they want."

She was very riled up, her eyes flashing around at the guardians who had dared disrespect her daughter—me. I could really see how people could be so afraid of her. She seemed to grow taller before my very eyes.

"I think as mature responsible adults we need to all support Guardian Belikov through this hard time." She finished, nodded towards Alberta and sat down.

"Thank you Guardian Hathaway" said Alberta. "I believe you have said everything I was going to add on the subject, although I will say that I also stand behind Rose's decisions one hundred percent, and will support her and Guardian Belikov through this difficult time"

Everyone was silent by this time; most people having accepted what had happened and surprisingly, being fine with it. Except for one.

"But that's not right! If they were together while Rose was still at school, and he was her mentor, he should be in jail!" Said one male guardian I vaguely recognized but didn't know.

"GUARDIAN Rose Hathaway" Began Albert angrily, "was not WITH Guardian Belikov while they were here, in fact they never did anything to let anyone, or even each other that they were together. They tried to ignore it. Obviously their love is real because now he is back. They have done nothing wrong and don't deserve to be discriminated against." The man who had spoken seemed content, if a little unhappy, with her response.

She looked around daring anyone else to object but everyone else seemed satisfied with her explanation—even though it wasn't exactly one hundred percent true.

"Where did you go when you left the school?" One guardian asked. I didn't realize this would turn into question Rose day.

"Ahh, I…" I looked at Alberta with pleading eyes.

"That is not a discussion for today. Our meeting was to inform you of the success of the raid, and update everyone on Dimitris status. This has been done. This meeting is now over. Thank you for coming. You may leave."

Most people hung around talking after the meeting. I made my way over to my mother and surprised her with a hug. She hugged me back stiffly. "Thank you" I whispered in her ear.

She pushed me back and grabbed my shoulders, looking into my eyes. "I meant every word." She smiled and let me go. I was glad she had seemingly accepted Dimitri and I and I hoped it would continue.

Suddenly I got pulled into someone's head. At first I thought I was in Lissas head but then I realised I must be in dimitris head because I could see myself. He must have been dreaming.

It took me a moment, but I began to panic when I realised where I was. I was in Russia, in the tower he had kept me in.

"_It'll be the best decision of your life, Roza" Dimitri said in his cold strigoi voice._

_I looked over at him with love and a little… was that excitement in my face?_

_I was wearing a forest green sweater dress that looked quite good on me. _

_I could see the sweat forming on my forehead as I looked at myself, no at Dimitri, this was Dimitris dream._

"_Tell me again. One more time. Why do you want to awaken me so badly?" My dream self asked._

_I could see the hope in my own face and it broke my heart._

"_Because I want you. I've always wanted you." Dimitri said wearily. At that moment my dream self leant up and kissed Dimitri on the lips._

_It was very strange feeling like I was kissing myself. I could feel everything Dimitri was feeling both as a strigoi and as a dhampir reliving this nightmare experience. I felt longing and a certain hardness form one. And utter despair and self loathing from the other. _

_Suddenly I felt an excruciating pain in my chest and screamed as loudly as I could while my hands felt the stake protruding out of my body and I felt myself collapse._

Suddenly I realised I was back in my own body in front of my mother and I was still screaming. I stopped abruptly and then I heard Dimitri.

_Roza? Oh god Roza is it true? Did it really happen? Where are you? Are you okay?_

I could feel his panic through our new bond and I knew he'd probably feel my worry. I would definitely have to work on shielding myself from this bond like I do with Lissa.

_I'm coming Dimitri, I'm on my way now._

I took off running towards the infirmary. When I reached the room I burst through with no warning and saw Dimitri sitting up with his face in his hands.

As a got to his side he looked at me and I realised he had tears in his eyes.

"Please tell me it's not true." He pleaded with me.

**Hey everyone I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you so much for all your support through pm's and reviews. It means so much to me to know how much you enjoy this story and that you think I am doing a good job of it. **

**There will be a little more Lissa/Rose interactions in the next chapter… **

**Thank you for reading **** (and hopefully enjoying)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Hello! I am sorry this chapter is a little shorter then most, but I figured you'd rather I get it up instead of rewriting it. **

**I had a little trouble writing it, I came back to it each day for four days. I finished it now… but I am not 100% happy with it. If theres anything you don't understand or mistakes, please let me know.**

**I hope I will be more inspired with the next chapters. **

**Thankyou for reading as always **

**And thankyou so very much for all your wonderful reviews. They fill me with joy!**

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CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

I took my time inspecting my nails while I tried to get my thoughts in order. I still had no idea what I was going to say to Dimitri, but I lifted my gaze anyway into his mournful eyes.

"It's true…" He whispered mostly to himself. There were no more tears now, just a sense of utter desolation and a blank empty face. If I couldn't feel his emotions I would have been really worried he'd become catatonic.

"Dimitri, DIMITRI!" I tried to reach for his face but he turned away from my touch. I was fighting to keep my own emotion in check. All I could feel was his overwhelming sense of self loathing and disgust at what he'd done to me.

I finally forced up some kind of barrier between us emotionally, grabbed his face with both hands and turned it to face me.

"I. Love. You. That's all that matters, that we love eachother and we are both here and safe and alive" I pleaded with him but I could see his eyes glazing over.

"Look, Dimitri, I will tell you the full story, start to finish okay? And only then can you judge yourself, and even then I get a say in your judgement because we are connected now, and I don't want to feel self loathing the rest of my life." I may have gotten a little snappy at the end there, but I held myself back.

His head snapped up to look directly into my face. "Is that why we can talk…" _Like this?_ He concluded in my head.

_Yes, it is. _I Replied "But I will explain that when I get to it. Okay?" I waited for him to agree fully before I continued.

I talked then for nearly an hour straight. I told him everything. I told him how I felt when he got taken in the caves, how I left Lissa to find him, how I spent some time with his family, how I met abe and oksana and mark, how I killed many strigoi hunting for him, and how he found me and took me hostage.

I spared no details here. I wanted him to know I knew what he had been but that I still loved the part of him that was still… him. That there was a piece of himself in there still. I explained about me getting away, and him not actually being dead. I told him how I couldn't bare to kill him again so I broke Victor out of jail, found Robert and discovered how to save him… with a lot of help.

By the time I finished I was getting very tired of my own voice. Something I never thought would happen.

"So now we are bonded… like you and Lissa?" Dimitri asked.

"Well, no, not exactly. To be able to have this specific bond, you have to be brought back form the shadow world, land of spirits, whatever you want to call it… by someone who has the power of spirit on their side… and who shares a true love with this person they wish to save."

I dropped my head at this point, unsure of how Dimitri felt about this bond with me. He lifted my head and looked into my eyes. "However I feel.. about what I did… doesn't change the love I have for you now and always." I wondered how he knew how I felt. Then I realised. The bond.

Stupid bond. Interesting though, if I put my barrier up I couldn't get his feelings but he could get me still. He must have felt my change of mood as he was looking at me questioningly.

_Can you hear me?_ I asked

_Of course my Roza. It's part of our bond. _He smiled sexily at me and I had a few sudden unbidden thoughts about his mouth… and hands… and that night in the cabin. His smile grew wider as he felt my mood changing. I pushed it away and shook my head.

_Not yet._ I smiled. _First_ _I want to figure out something with this bond._

"Can you block me? Like put up an invisible barrier to stop me from feeling your emotions?" He looked at me like I was a little crazy but nodded anyway.

I reached out a little and felt him there still. I pushed a little further and all his emotions hit me. Frustration and concentration came through with the same underlying feelings of self loathing and anger he has had since I brought him back.

"Nope, still there" I said when he looked at me questioningly. "Try again" I suggested.

We went on like that for a fair while. By about the fourteenth or fifteenth go however I could still feel him there but I could only just feel his stronger emotions.

"That's better you're getting it!" I said excitedly. Then I noticed how drained he looked, I forgot how much energy this took when you first learnt how.

"Maybe we should give it a rest for today huh?" I said. He looked at me like I was crazy.

"You should know me better then that Roza" He smiled sexily at me. At least this was taking his mind off all those negative emotions he had.

"Okay then Dimitri, but you should know…" I smirked at him. "If anything happens to you I will have to kick your ass"

He chuckled and shook his head.

We continued on for nearly an hour, him not getting much better until our very last try. He managed to block me out completely. I could sense him, but if he wasn't next to me I wouldn't have known where he was, let alone sense his emotions.

We took a little break after that and then experimented for a while with our silent communication. Turns out we could project our thoughts to each other regardless of whether our walls were up, but if our walls were down we could sense all the others emotions plus every now any again errant thoughts running through their head.

This was going to be interesting.

As I noticed Dimitris eyes drooping a little, I felt how tired he was through the bond and realised I must have let all my barriers go. I kissed him gently and held his hand. He smiled wearily up at me and I knew he felt weak, from everything we had just done, and also from the fact that he WAS so weak. I knew he was unhappy with himself, but he really did need some sleep.

After about ten minutes I thought he was asleep and went to get up to get a drink but I felt him pull my hand back.

"Roza… I love you." He said slowly with his voice full of sleep. He was so adorable.

"As I love you Comrade" I brushed his hair from his face and watched him fall into a deep sleep. This time I checked the bond to see how he was he was doing to make sure he was okay.

Huh.

Apparently another part of our bond was that I could tap into his dreams. Uh oh… that meant he could tap into mine.

I reached out like normal, but instead of emotions, I got emotions accompanied by images. Images of me. He was dreaming of all our special times together.

I smiled as a scene began between myself and him in a cabin—a very familiar looking cabin… A very familiar looking scene. If he wasn't so in need of sleep I would have woken him up and played out his dream in real life. But he really did need rest. I kept telling myself that and pulled myself from his dream.

Walking out of that room instead of jumping into his lap was the hardest thing I had to do in a very long time. I figured I'd go have a cold shower.

I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and so as I walked out of the room I walked into Lissa.

She wasn't looking at me and she was blocking me out.

"Whats wrong?" I assumed something was wrong. Everytime she has done this something bad has happened.

"Nothing is wrong." She said, her tone of voice implying that all was not right either.

As she looked up at me he face crumbled and I caught a break in the bond.

She was jealous. Insanely, unjustifiably Jealous.

I knew I'd have to work this out now before it got too bad. "C'mon Lissa, lets go talk." I led her to my dorm room and she followed me easily.

As soon as we sat down I looked at her face and it softened into a look of sisterly love. She let the bond open fully and looked back down.

She was still feeling crazy jealous, but she also felt guilty for feeling jealous, afraid she would lose me and worried about the future now. "I'm sorry" She said while still looking down.

"Lissa, Look at me." I ordered. She hesitatingly raised her eyes, her hair still partially covering her face.

"I love you. You will always be a part of my life and we will always be sisters. What is it that is making you so unhappy?" I watched her trying to figure out what to say, and had a split second to absorb it through the bond before the words fell out of her mouth.

"I am jealous of your bond with Dimitri. I saw you both. Talking through the bond. Back and Forth." Aaaaaah, that was it. The two way part of our bond. She thought having it with him would bring me closer then our measly one way bond.

"Oh Lissa, Hon… I already told you I love you. Sure I have a different kind of bond with Dimitri, but that's because our souls are… entwined" I was still having trouble adjusting to this concept. "Our bond is just as strong if not stronger. You probably even have a part of my soul too, because you saved me."

"You've got to take it into perspective. Think what I went through to save him, and this is the only side effect? We could have LOST our bond. That willing sacrifice on your part is something I'll never forget. We belong together, you, me, Dimitri and fireboy."

"I know. I'm sorry Rose. I have tried to contain it, but when you put it like that… we really did come out of this with the best possible outcome." She smiled at me and I knew that what she said was the truth. She felt better somehow. I did notice a little darkness from within her though. I quickly and silently pulled it from her and smiled when I reached back out and it was gone.

"So what do we do now? I mean does Dimitri get darkness like me now, or does he share yours when you take mine? I can tell when you guys are talking through your bond, and I can feel your emotions, but I can't hear what you say." She said all this very quickly. She must have been thinking about all this for a while.

I chewed on my lip while I thought. I suddenly thought of something that was perfect. "I'm not sure but we'll have to do a lot of experimenting. I did think of something else though. If I am so connected to you, and dimitri to me… Then we would be perfect to guard you, and Christian of course." It was an awesome solution to our problems. My father had chosen four guards for Lissa, but because we were at the academy they were having a break. They were to join her once she left. I was going to guard her as well. No matter what Queen Bitch said.

This gave us the perfect answer for now though. Once Dimitri was up to guarding again of course.

"Oh my god! That's perfect!" Lissa exclaimed. Her eyes were shining with joy that we had come to such a perfect arrangement.

"Well we'll have to talk to Dimitri about it first, he's still not very well. I'm sure we will work it out though. We will have to start experimenting soon as well to find out the abilities and limitations of this new bond." I pursed my lips as I thought about the challenges I could feel we would be facing.


	23. AN

Hey Everybody…

First of all sorry I haven't updated in a while, and that this isn't an update.

I hope everyone enjoyed spirit bound(the real book) personally it just leaves me wanting to REALLY read the last book NOW. which is exactly what Richelle Mead probably wants lol.

I am putting this story on hold for a while, not sure how long for, but I don't have enough time for it.

I am an actor in a new group from perth and i need to focus all my attention on this right now.

We will have an internet TV series about vampires up and running within a few weeks, its different from VA, and Vampire Diaries and Twilight and all of that, and if you are interested in watching/following it, let me know and i will give you the link.

I will try my very best to get back into writing this story, but at this stage I am not making any promises.

Thankyou all for your support and helpfulness throughout my story up until this point.


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